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Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Thursday, February 08, 2018

a dog sees a broken heart, 1917

thanks british library (PD)
So here's what I found today: I don't know who Lucie Lacoste was, but somebody must have broken her heart like a pro, because in 1917 she published a slim volume of verse titled "Tears."
It reads pretty much like you'd expect.
However, there was one piece in there that did hit close to home, and it stars the beloved's dog.  I must share this with you.  Here you go:

UNDERSTANDING
We PARTED, and you left me only the sob that follows deep suffering.
I strive to smother my love in the wine and song of the gay "dansant."
I sit listening to the noisy orchestra, watching the agile movements of the bare legs and arms of the dancers, as they whirl recklessly on the lighted platform in the smoke-filled room.
I long for a breath of fresh air, and pass out to be alone with the night.
I stifle a sob that follows,—immense, innumerable, fathomless suffering.
I think of the day I encountered you. After your love had lived its climax, you met and passed
me by; but he—your dog, of the large golden eyes, as I buried my fingers in his soft, warm fur, striving to control the tears
that trembled on my lids—looked up at me, and raising his deep, subtle eyes to mine, understandingly, lovingly licked my face.
But you passed me by; and for the hours of love I gave you, left to me a sob, and the memory—
That he,
Your dog,
Lovingly, understandingly licked my face
As you smiled and passed me by.

-- Lacoste, Lucie. Tears: "The Love Letters of ------". New York: Avondale Press, 1917. 75-6.


1 comment:

parlance said...

That section of the poem is gorgeous.