Letter to a Lost Lover

Dear Lost Lover,

I received your letter
But we will not talk of that now
I want to talk of myself–
that funny little thing they call
Wanda Gág…

That far from dazzling creature who
Many years ago
Made the great mistake
Of falling in love with you…
That Wanda Gág…

I insist that I have loved
More deeply and intensely
Than anyone else can
Your new lover included
This Wanda Gág…

As I have said before
I certainly do not blame you
For what has happened
But that does not lessen the torture
Of Wanda Gág…

The fact remains that I am
The superfluous quantity…
Thoughts, like beaten hounds
Parade apathetically away
From Wanda Gág…

So, we are not to be
the companions we tried to become
We are not to wrangle with
the big forms of mountains, you and
Wanda Gág…

That indefinable thing between us
Does not exist after all…
I had organized my life around
An illusion, we do not belong together
I am Wanda Gág…

A separate thing…



Adapted from Wanda Gág's letter to her ex-lover Adolph Dehn, 1922.

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