The Wall Hanging I Never Noticed
I never noticed before
How the red flowers hang from the blue branches
I never noticed before the light in this room
I never noticed the way the air is cool again
I never noticed anything but you
But you but you
So that I couldn’t sleep
I never noticed what was anything but you
Until I noticed you
And could not help it
Until I noticed you I could not help it
Until you made the red flowers alive again
Until the blue branches
The lemons you loved, but also the way you loved me, too
Until all of this I never noticed you
But once I did
I never minded noticing
I never stopped noticing
Until I noticed you
I never stopped noticing
Until you, I never stopped
Copyright @ 2014 by Dorothea Lasky. Used with permission of the author. This poem appeared in Poem-a-Day on July 18, 2014.
“I have a giant piece of Marimekk fabric of blue birds sitting on big branches full of red fruit that hangs in my kitchen window and I wrote this poem while looking at it. This poem is about that feeling you have when you just can’t get enough of someone and how this feeling of insatiability extends over the world in a state of blissful calm once you thankfully feel it. Sometimes I think the feeling itself is the addiction. This poem is a love letter.”
—Dorothea Lasky
Dorothea Lasky
Born on March 27, 1978, in St. Louis, Missouri, Dorothea Lasky received her BA from Washington University.