No world is intact

No world is intact
and no one cares about you.

I leaned down over
don’t care about, I care about
	you
I leaned down over the 

world in portrayal
of carefulness, answering

something you couldn’t say.
walking or fallen and you
	were supposed
to give therapy to me—

me leaning down
brushing with painted feathers
to the left chance your operatic,
	broken

book.

"No World is Intact," from Grave of Light: New and Selected Poems, 1970-2005, © 2006 by Alice Notley, published by Wesleyan University Press. Used by permission of Wesleyan University Press.