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“I’m traveling in some vehicle…”
—after Joni Mitchell’s song and album Hejira I used to sit on concrete curb stops, read about orphans traveling the same wood so often they named slight variations in the landscape, like an ancestor. I circumnavigate a nearby reserve, now, & can’t enter into each [...]
Why I Would Rather Go to the Laundromat Than Write Poems
Because the gears are already turning when I get there, and all I need to bring are my own things. Because the rules are few and good for everyone: don’t overload, no sitting on the tables, door locks automatically at ten p.m. Because there [...]
Final Expense
An American child’s voice heckling Lightnin Hopkins,’Howlin Wolfs’ blues I won’t pay for ad free experiences He asks Father if going to heaven is expensive; he overheard conversation between his parents on end of life care Father, unremarkable with grilled hair and vacation [...]
What Governments Say to Women
(The law compels a married woman to take the nationality of her husband.) I. In Time of War Help us. Your country needs you; Show that you love her, Give her your men to fight, Ay, even to fall; The fair, free land [...]
Strange Meeting
It seemed that out of battle I escaped Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped Through granites which titanic wars had groined. Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned, Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred. Then, as I probed them, one [...]
On the Death of a Young Gentleman
Who taught thee conflict with the pow’rs of night, To vanquish satan in the fields of light? Who strung thy feeble arms with might unknown, How great thy conquest, and how bright thy crown! War with each princedom, throne, and pow’r is o’er, The scene [...]
In Spite of War
In spite of war, in spite of death, In spite of all man’s sufferings, Something within me laughs and sings And I must praise with all my breath. In spite of war, in spite of hate Lilacs are blooming at my gate, Tulips are tripping [...]
DULCE ET DECORUM EST
Wilfred Owen (1893 –1918) Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But [...]
Only
This is only one street. One streetlamp. It is only your face illuminated by brownstones and moonlight, The clean shell of you. It is only the rain, this night, This rain like poison Singing softly. I am telling you that your fleeing sears me. I [...]
body of War
After Piggyback Ride by Lisa Yuskavage We are giants escaping from a burning world My face is torn Or maybe it is the military planes From ash veins, my vantage, I don’t know where your body ends and my dying begins. [...]
