qualm

An illustration (for an E2 valentine*)

• The temblors’ shaking stopped, a gas leak caught
  With peanut butter, and let go outside.


• Reconstituted lightning -- tried on, bought,
  And worn home from the storm -- worn out, it died.


• Rapture of the deepest dive a clarinet
  Can sound: An E note, packed in urchin roe.


• Cigar box nest of round things; delicate,
  Long, thin things... Could it be a radio?



• Your ironing board -- left down, unfolded from
  The wall -- its cover scorched with Moorish gates
  Through which your dream-green moonlight will not come
  Before your invitation’s pressed. It waits --
  And while it does, let each of these, as markers, stand
  For all your breathless qualms cupped in my distant hand.

*of who, vicariously, I’ve grown fond;
so strong when she says, “No deals, Mr. Bond.”

Qualm (?), n. [AS. cwealm death, slaughter, pestilence, akin to OS. & OHG. qualm. See Quail to cower.]

1.

Sickness; disease; pestilence; death.

thousand slain and not of qualm ystorve [dead]. Chaucer.

2.

A sudden attack of illness, faintness, or pain; an agony.

Milton.

3.

Especially, a sudden sensation of nausea.

For who, without a qualm, hath ever looked On holy garbage, though by Homer cooked? Roscommon.

4.

A prick or scruple of conscience; uneasiness of conscience; compunction.

Dryden.

© Webster 1913.