I left a few poems in shitholes. Real, actual shitholes. Bladder Song by Nathan Leonard On a piece of toilet paper Afloat in the unflushed piss, The fully printed lips of a woman. Nathan, cheer up! The sewer Sends you a big red kiss. Ah, nothing’s wasted, if it’s human. […]
MoreInvictus by William Earnest Henley Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, […]
MoreA Drink of Water by Seamus Heaney She came every morning to draw water Like an old bat staggering up the field: The pump’s whooping cough, the bucket’s clatter And slow diminuendo as it filled, Announced her. I recall Her grey apron, the pocked white enamel Of the brimming bucket, and the treble […]
MoreBreakfast by Ljubomir Simovic Didn’t I say last night it will snow? What else would there be but snow? I no longer wait for the rustle of wings, or some dove to make my heart leap and shine its light on me. Snow has hatched in every den and lair putting […]
MoreAlzheimer’s: The Wife by C.K. Williams She answers the bothersome telephone, takes the message, forgets the message, forgets who called. One of their daughters, her husband guesses: the one with the dogs, the babies, the boy Jed? Yes, perhaps, but how tell which, how tell anything when all the name tags have been […]
MoreBeginning of November by Franz Wright The light is winter light. You’ve already felt it before you can open your eyes, and now it’s too late to prepare yourself for this gray originless sorrow that’s filling the room. It’s not winter. The light is winter light, and you’re alone. At last you get […]
MoreThe Problem of Gratified Desire by Marie Ponsot If she puts honey in her tea and praises prudence in the stirring up she drinks, finally, a drop of perfect sweetness hot at the bottom of the cup. There will be pleasures more complex than it (pleasure exchanged were infinite) but none so […]
MoreThe Sun by Judah Al-Harizi Look: the sun has spread its wings over the earth to dispel the darkness. Like a great tree, with its roots in heaven, and its branches reaching down to the earth. Wouldn’t it be nice to wake up to headline like this: SUN DISPELS […]
MoreShapes by Ruth Stone In the longer view it doesn’t matter. However, it’s that having lived, it matters. So that every death breaks you apart. You find yourself weeping at the door of your own kitchen, overwhelmed by loss. And you find yourself weeping as you pass the homeless person head in hands […]
MoreUntitled by Franz Wright If I think I have problems I look in the mirror; I go to the window, or ponder the future reduced to more or less three pounds of haunted meat. And it’s never like I always said: if you don’t want something wish for it . . . Lost […]
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