Only that it should be beautiful, Only that it should be beautiful, O, beautiful Red green blue—the wet lips Laughing Or the curl of the white shell And the beauty of women, the perfect tendons Under the skin, the perfect life That can twist in a flood Of desire Not truth but each other The bright, bright skin, her hands wavering In her incredible need
From New Collected Poems. Copyright © 2002 by Linda Oppen. Used with permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.