UncategorizedArchive

May 12

Day Lilies (Warren)

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Day Lilies, by Susanna Warren (1953-) For six days, full-throated, they praised the light with speckled tongues and blare of silence by the porch stair: honor guard with blazons and trumpets raised still heralding the steps of those who have not for years walked here but who once, pausing, chose this slope for a throng […]

May 11

Fifteen (Monsour)

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Fifteen, by Leslie Monsour (1948-) The boys who fled my father’s house in fear Of what his wrath would cost them if he found Them nibbling slowly at his daughter’s ear, Would vanish out the back without a sound, And glide just like the shadow of a crow, To wait beside the elm tree in […]

May 10

Out of Metropolis (Emanuel)

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Out of Metropolis, by Lynn Emanuel (1949-) We’re headed for empty-headedness, the featureless amnesias of Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, states rich only in vowel sounds and alliteration. We’re taking the train so we can see into the heart of the heart of America framed in the windows’ cool oblongs of light. We want cottages, farmhouses with […]

May 09

Armistice (Jewett)

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Armistice, by Sophie Jewett (1861-1909) The water sings along our keel,    The wind falls to a whispering breath; I look into your eyes and feel    No fear of life or death; So near is love, so far away The losing strife of yesterday.   We watch the swallow skim and dip;    Some magic bids the […]

May 08

In the Winter of This Climate (Wunderlich)

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In the Winter of This Climate, by Mark Wunderlich (1968-) When I dream it is of sheep tangled in the marsh, their calls growing faint and the light failing   or winter’s handful of piano notes against the highway’s salt hiss. Nothing stays at home forever.   This is the house I go back to, […]

May 08

The City of God (Baker)

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The City of God, by David Baker (1954-) Now we knelt beside the ruined waters as our first blood, our bulb-before-bloom, unfurled too early in slender petals. Now we were empty. Now we walked for months on softer shoes and spoke, not quite with grief. This morning four deer come up to the yard to […]

May 06

Prelude (Synge)

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Prelude, by J. M. (John Millington) Synge (1871-1909) Still south I went and west and south again, Through Wicklow from the morning till the night, And far from cities, and the sights of men, Lived with the sunshine and the moon’s delight.   I knew the stars, the flowers, and the birds, The gray and […]

May 05

Fly, Dragonfly! (Sidman)

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Fly, Dragonfly!, by Joyce Sidman (1956-) Water nymph, you have climbed from the shallows to don your dragon-colors. Perched on a reed stem all night, shedding your skin, you dry your wings in moonlight. Night melts into day. Swift birds wait to snap you up. Fly, dragonfly! Fly!

May 05

Sympathy (Fathi)

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Sympathy, by Farnoosh Fathi (1981-) Whose table is that, left on three legs? If there’s been a mistake, it may be in assuming less vulnerability as one fills the vase—   whose buoyant comfort exaggerates at the sight of his own proffered, sympathetic hand, striking him so clean in comparison   gloved white, magician—for a […]

May 03

The Mermaid in the Hospital (Dhohmnaill)

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The Mermaid in the Hospital, by Nuala Ni Dhohmnaill (1952-) She awoke to find her fishtail clean gone but in the bed with her were two long, cold thingammies. You’d have thought they were tangles of kelp or collops of ham.   “They’re no doubt taking the piss, it being New Year’s Eve. Half the […]

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