Alla Breve Loving

By C. D. Wright b. 1949

Three people drinking out of the bottle

in the living room.

A cold rain. Quiet as a mirror.

One of the men

stuffs his handkerchief in his coat,

climbs the stairs with the girl.

The other man is left sitting

at the desk with the wine and the headache,

turning an old Ellington side

over in his mind. And over.

He held her like a saxophone

when she was his girl.

Her tongue trembling at the reed.

The man lying next to her now

thinks of another woman.

Her white breath idling

before he drove off.

He said something about a spell,

watching the snow fall on her shoulders.

The musician

crawls back into his horn,

ancient terrapin

at the approach of the wheel.

C. D. Wright, “Alla Breve Loving” from Steal Away: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 2002 by C. D. Wright. Reprinted with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P. O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.coppercanyonpress.org.

Source: Steal Away: Selected and New Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2002)

Biography

C.D. Wright was born in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, the daughter of a judge and a court reporter. She has published over a dozen books, including Rising, Falling, Hovering (2008); Like Something Flying Backwards: New and Selected Poems (2007); and a text edition of One Big Self: An Investigation (2003), a project she undertook with photographer Deborah Luster to document Louisiana inmates. She has also published several . . .

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