Night Opens to the Storm

Poem by Anne-Marie Derése, translated by Judith Skillman.

Night opens to the storm,
a mauve coupling,
swollen.
The sky, laden
like a merchant ship,
throws off its anchor.
Danger, heavier
each instant,
exudes the mugginess
of a greenhouse.

Shimmering like mercury
The Valley of the Seven Muses
breathes mist
through its gray nostrils.

The valley of has rejoined the night,
two humid females
the storm penetrates.

And I, standing here
in the anxious wind,
I wait for the tearing apart.