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The Comfort of Darkness
by Galway Kinnell

Darkness swept the earth
in my dream,
Cold crowded the streets
with its wings,
Cold talons pursued each river
and stream into the mountains,
found out their springs
And drilled the dark world with ice.
An enormous wreck of a bird
Closed on my heart in the darkness
And sank into sleep as it shivered.

Not even the heat of your blood,
nor the pure light falling endlessly
from you, like rain,
Could stay in my memory there
Or comfort me then.
Only the comfort of darkness,
The ice-cold, unfreezable brine,
Could melt the cries into silence,
Your bright hands into mine.

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