Oh, That Bed, That Bed!

Ruth Sabath Rosenthal

She’d once found refuge in it,
mattress firm & you a soft fit

for sweet repose,
endless comfort in the throes

of that. But you ended this
for good, made her dread bed-

time, gave her only fits
of slumber in a swelter

of nightmare after nightmare
nightly grown more

& more disturbed; calm turned
calamity — dreams burned

black, & in your stead, she said
the hollow you left swelled

the lump in her craw, said
there was no way in hell

she’d endure another
night in that dreadful bed.

About the author

Ruth Sabath Rosenthal is a New York poet, well published in literary journals and poetry anthologies throughout the U.S. and also in Canada, Israel, India, Romania, and the U.K.  In 2006, Ruth’s poem "on yet another birthday" was nominated for a Pushcart prize. Ruth’s inspiration for her poem “Oh, That Bed, That Bed” was a poem by Emily Dickinson titled “Ample Make This Bed.”  It was the title/first line of Emily’s poem that really grabbed Ruth and got her thinking about the “marital” bed and how opposite it could be from Emily’s “ample” bed.  

If you’re interested, Ruth has a book of poems titled “Facing Home and Beyond” that can be purchased from amazon.com; barnesandnoble.com; or directly from Ruth, via e-mail: ruthspoems(at)aol.com. She also has a poetry book forth-coming titled “little, but by no means small.”  For more about Ruth, visit the following websites:



http://www.ruthsabathrosenthal.moonfruit.com/
http://www.pw.org/content/ruth_sabath_rosenthal
http://www.poetryvlog.com/ruthsabathrosenthal

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