Adrienne Rich - I know you are reading this poem (Dedications) lyrics

I know you are reading this poem
Late, before leaving your office
Of the one intense yellow lamp-spot
And the darkening window
In the lassitude of a building faded to quiet
Long after rush-hour i know you
Are reading this poem
Standing up in a bookstore far from the ocean
On a grey day of early spring
Faint flakes driven
Across the plains’ enormous spaces around you
I know you are reading this poem
In a room where too much has
Happened for you to bear
Where the bedclothes lie in stagnant
Coils on the bed
And the open valise speaks of flight
But, you cannot leave yet i know
You are reading this poem
As the underground train loses
Momentum and before running up the stairs
Toward a new kind of love
Your life has never allowed
I know you are reading this poem by the light
Of the television screen where soundless
Images jerk and slide while you wait for the
Newscast from the intifada
I know you are reading this
Poem in a waiting-room
Of eyes met and unmeeting
Of identity with strangers
I know you are reading this
Poem by fluorescent light
In the boredom and fatigue of the
Young who are counted out
Count themselves out
At too early an age i know
You are reading this poem
Through your failing sight, the thick
Lens enlarging these letters beyond all
Meaning yet you read on
Because even the alphabet is precious
I know you are reading this poem
As you pace beside the stove
Warming milk, a crying child
On your shoulder, a book in your
Hand
Because life is short and you too are thirsty
I know you are reading this poem
Which is not in your language
Guessing at some words while
Others keep you reading
And I want to know which words they are
I know you are reading this
Poem listening for something, torn
Between bitterness and hope
Turning back once again to the
Task you cannot refuse
I know you are reading this poem
Because there is nothing else left to read
There where you have landed
Stripped as you are