Diane Wakoski Discrepancies and Apparitions • First Edition Hardcover

Doubleday & Company, 1966. First edition stated. Bound in black cloth. Gilt titling. Lime green endpapers; deckled page edge. Top edge sunned. Price clipped cream dust jacket shows trace soiling, light rubbing at edges and corners.

◇

I. Oranges

There was one orange on the tree /
and you walked by. /
How could you know that /
Death lived inside/
sleeping in the membranes. /
How could you know /
he would unfold, /
wearing pointed slippers, /
velvet doublet, /
and a gold cod-piece /
the moment you opened the orange. /
How could you have known /
he would step out and kill you?

Remember the orange /
shining on the tree /
alone - /
and remember not to touch / if there is only one.

My hand holds the orange. /
Your hand holds mine. /
Remember, we hold death /
in our hands and /
it is because we hold /
what is not our own - /
that death is inside
and we hold him.

◇