they say Emily doesn’t read Walt Holland tells her he’s disgraceful does that stop her? I will go to the bank by the wood & become undisguised & naked. Emily doesn’t speak in that register A few light kisses . . . a few embraces . . . a reaching round of arms. does she suspect he is her lone contemporary & might dilute her? Always a knit of identity . . . Who need be afraid of the merge? Walt plays the social game Emily has no such innocence enslaved by patriarchy, by gender she invents her freedom Between My Country — and the Others — There is a Sea — But Flowers — negotiate between us — As Ministry. Pollak claims Walt never heard of Emily why should we believe that? You splash in the water there, yet stay stock still in your room. Walt imagines her lusting after his twenty-eight young men he doesn’t know of Austin, of Susan Dropped — my fate — a timid Pebble — In thy bolder Sea — Prove — me — Sweet — if I regret it — Prove Myself — of Thee — no one unmasks Emily’s longings Afraid! Of whom am I afraid? Not Death — for who is He? . . . Of Life? Twere odd I fear a thing That comprehendeth me Walt boasts, so much I this & I that Emily’s humility sings