Cage

By Josephine Miles 1911–1985 Josephine Miles

Through the branches of the Japanese cherry

Blooming like a cloud which will rain

A rain white as the sun

The living room across the roadway

Cuts its square of light

And in it fight

Two figures, hot, irate,

Stuck between sink and sofa in that golden cage.

Come out into the night, walk in the night,

It is for you, not me.

The cherry flowers will rain their rain as white

Cool as the moon.

Listen how they surround.

You swing among them in your cage of light.

Come out into the night.

Source: Collected Poems 1930-83 (University of Illinois Press, 1983)