Carolyn Zaikowski

Poem for Charlotte Perkins Gilman

I saw the secret of life in patterns on the wall

I saw you dancing, each eyelid dripping

pain and life until the floor was covered in

amiable secretions.

I saw the secret of life in this breaking line

where there was a quickly drying desert. I

had never seen a desert or a secret,

but I knew the revelation. It stood calmly,

asking, the spirals drawn out forever,

escaping into into into.