Suffer, mid-13th century: to allow
to occur or continue; in the Anglo
French, suffrir; Old French sofrir:
to bear, endure— Is this why
in the open I want to be hidden,
to slip into a space where no
supplication can follow; or why,
hidden, yet my ears will prickle
at the sound of soft rain on window-
sills? Why am I always neither
here nor there, floating
in the gap of a soliloquy,
head turned by any hint
of rose or musk or wounded
by the merest remnant
of kindness? Is it my body
I inhabit, or do I only haunt
a country whose maps have grown
unreadable? Once, a fortune teller
turned my palms over and said here
and here is where this line
comes to overlap with others.
In response to an entry from the Morning Porch.