In her own words...
"Unfounded Certitudes"
2003
If, waiting for you to begin,
It's been there all along;
If all you know is next time
And now the sky caves in;
If, say, you're caught between,
And it's time to come to grief,
Why wait your turn in line
Just for the end of the thing?
If in your down-filled shroud,
Wellsprings actually leak,
And fear itself is punctured
Like your present mood;
If a certain savagery persists;
If by now you're shorn of skin
And would welcome any fix,
Then all hail, walk in on this:
Irrational reasons have made you think
Tomorrow's a crass and faceless place.
Come in, sit down, lock up the night.
Something will happen. Play your ace.
It's been there all along;
If all you know is next time
And now the sky caves in;
If, say, you're caught between,
And it's time to come to grief,
Why wait your turn in line
Just for the end of the thing?
If in your down-filled shroud,
Wellsprings actually leak,
And fear itself is punctured
Like your present mood;
If a certain savagery persists;
If by now you're shorn of skin
And would welcome any fix,
Then all hail, walk in on this:
Irrational reasons have made you think
Tomorrow's a crass and faceless place.
Come in, sit down, lock up the night.
Something will happen. Play your ace.
About this work
“Unfounded Certitudes” was first published in The Yale Review, Vol. 91, no. 4 (October 2003), p. 84. It is also included in Dorothea Tanning's book, A Table of Content: Poems, New York: Graywolf Press, 2004, p. 80, and may not be reprinted without the publisher's permission.
