Improv - Sharon Olds

[Larry Robinson]

Improv

On the morning of the drive from sea-level
to the mountain, I asked if we could stop for melted
cheese! at the Mexican place in Truckee.
Then I worried, does Bob think I’m a diva? 
Am I always asking for things? And I thought of Toi’s letter, 
and I know she is the locus of a gift— 
and I am too, a spiral of energy, a genie, a dust-devil,
I was born with it, a life force, 
it does not belong to me, or to anyone else, 
I’m the container of it, the guardian. 
And I love to let it out toward people— 
nectary nosegay gusts of it. 
My mother would ask me to rub her back, 
she said that I had Vivian Hands,
like her college best friend’s— 
the palms of my hands would listen for what 
my mother’s muscles wanted—as now, 
I seem to be writing, but I’m listening for what you want, 
it would be my joy to give it to you. 
There is so much joy on the earth even as it is being dis-inhabited 
by the other animals, and over-inhabited by us—as it is being 
knocked off course and smoked and drowned. 
While we have food, let us share it and eat it. 
There is so much action required of us now. 
And pleasure is required of us. 
O my darlings, so much pleasure is required of us.

     - Sharon Olds




"Be joyful though you have considered all the facts."
    - Wendell Berry