Like Rousseau
Like Rousseau - meaning Summary
Dreams and Urban Collapse
The speaker watches a lover who is emotionally distant and absorbed in dream life while physical desire persists. Images of cities tilting and buildings sliding into a river suggest cultural or personal collapse around them. Language and objects feel like barriers—"boxes of words and pictures"—that separate intimacy. The poem frames lovers as both agents and observers: they touch and wait while their dreams consume the morning, eroding structures of meaning and connection.
Read Complete AnalysesShe stands beside me, stands away, the vague indifference of her dreams. Dreaming, to go on, and go on there, like animals fleeing the rise of the earth. But standing intangible, my lust a worked anger a sweating close covering, for the crudely salty soul. Then back off, and where you go? Box of words and pictures. Steel balloons tied to our mouths. The room fills up, and the house. Street tilts. City slides, and buildings slide into the river. What is there left, to destroy? That is not close, or closer. Leaning away in the angle of language. Pumping and pumping, all our eyes criss cross and flash. It is the lovers pulling down empty structures. They wait and touch and watch their dreams eat the morning.
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