In her own words...
"Pursued, I Ran into the Barn"
2000
Rough-hewn shadows streamed around us,
Eyeless-seeming.
With hideous intent the pursuer came on,
Mindless, sniffing.
No stratagem, no swiftness would hide you,
Guileless and bleeding.
You were a bundle of fur in my arms,
Helpless, trusting.
Among barn-dwellers I sought concealment.
Shaftless, brushing
Away from the window I watched it come on,
Pitiless, secreting
Revenge from below. The insane thing,
Spineless, dripping,
Had already closed in. You stirred in my arms,
Weightless, leading
Me on to discover the end of the scheme,
,
The tearing sound in this poem's dream.
About this work
“Pursued, I Ran into the Barn” was first published in LIT 3, Vol. 2, no. 1 (Fall 2000), p. 40. It is also included in Dorothea Tanning's book, A Table of Content: Poems, New York: Graywolf Press, 2004, p. 47, and may not be reprinted without the publisher's permission.
