I Cannot Say -- Lynn Hard

[1938–current, born America, migrated to Australia in 1977]

I cannot say 
what other men desire 
in women,

what causes 
the meetings beyond the first,

but I 
am attracted 
to the lady fading

With her beauty 
like a dropped vase 
and the seam 
between glaze and clay 
evident, 

it is then, 
if there is to be any style 
beyond fashion, 
and utility to the style 
that it may be found.

It is then, 
when she is deciding 
on what to jettison 
like an overburdened vessel 
that she may most rewardingly 
be boarded.

It is then, 
midst all the confusion, 
her vulnerability an innocence, 
that one may want her 
for her previous, ageing youth 
or her present youthful age.


Source: Hard, L 1993, Dancing on the Drainboard, Angus & Robertson, Australia, pp. 16–17.