Name
When the decision got here
she ran. Exterior, out
the again door, screaming
No No, received to the
fence and ran again, dropped
to her knees and pawed
on the earth, clawing
up handfuls of grass.
She was howling. A
ululation. Some
factor I’d by no means heard
earlier than. Like
a wild horse roped, perhaps,
frantic, combating towards it.
Even area
was suffocating.
I stood by her, virtually
over her. However I didn’t
dare to the touch her.
It might have
been like touching the
pores and skin of a burn sufferer.
There are physicists
who assume there is no such thing as a
time. There’s solely
Now. A sequence of Nows.
That went on and on
till she slumped to the bottom.
She lay her physique
down. She lay her head.
No matter ache, the
earth receives our weight.
She quieted. She
didn’t rise. She peed
in her garments and the
water from her physique
sank into the grass.
Lastly, I lay palms on her.
Lastly, she rose.
Oh honey, oh child
My daughter’s within the cardiac ICU,
a crew of medical doctors, palms shifting over her, swift, exact,
as I select the wines for my son’s marriage ceremony, and the newborn
factors to watermelon on the counter and cobbles her syllables
into warmn warmn. Her eyelashes so lengthy, they seem like
some sort of attractive frilled underwater creatures.
The ICD in my daughter’s chest shocked her six instances
earlier than the ambulance received there. They are saying it’s like
being kicked by a horse. She began with,
I’m okay, however… the best way my mom taught us
to introduce terror. And he or she’ll in all probability be okay.
She in all probability will. She referred to as once I was wheeling the newborn
again from the bakery, the newborn was gnawing on a hunk of croissant
and its buttery flecks dropped to her chest, gold and soundless
within the din of the site visitors on Mission.
Oh honey, oh child, I saved repeating, as if the phrases
may lengthy bounce all of the cities between us.
In our yard, my spouse is filling five-gallon buckets with gravel
to carry up the poles of the chuppah
that may make a house for the bride and groom
as satin streamers elevate within the winds. My daughter is comfortable
she will watch the ceremony from her room.
If she’s too weak she’ll see the video later. The child
will put on pink sneakers and toss yellow petals
with a vigorous huff, the best way we taught her
to throw scratch for the chickens. My son will kiss his spouse
and I’ll watch them kiss. And kiss once more.
A poet as soon as wrote despair and reward
are like the rising of two wings that beat collectively.
Evidently, I’m flying.
Homage to the Useless Man
for Marvin Bell
Dwell as if you happen to had been already useless.
– Zen admonition
The useless man has been working towards for this all his life.
At the same time as he floated in amniotic waters, the cells of his nails and hair stiffened.
The useless man’s child sneakers had been stitched from the pores and skin of a calf.
His mom ladled the broth of chickens into his bowl.
He watched the summer season sky ignite white scorching after which slip by way of each shade of blue
till the bushes resolved into inky spines.
The useless man has seen the daybreak and demise of standard names.
He misplaced a lot on the journey: umbrellas, neckties, sleep.
However ardor and abandon make up his nights.
As for handkerchiefs, he by no means carries one. However while you deliver him your sorrow, the
earth turns extra slowly.
The useless man smells snow falling and hears glaciers as they calve.
He can do each on the identical time like singing and crying.
The useless man attends to leaves. The inexperienced leeching, the intense our bodies falling.
The useless man is aware of newspapers are useless bushes carrying information of useless our bodies.
He tries to slip weapons from the palms of the determined and deranged.
The useless man insists that senators work a season within the strawberry fields.
He’s watched arms of mud and fuel swirl out past Kentucky Fried Hen,
out past refugees carrying infants, and wildfires raging within the west.
The twist on the heart of that spiral disk is like two animals mating and a planet is born.
At some point it would die. Fall prey to a hungry star or a violent neighbor.
Within the meantime the useless man faucets his foot as Sonny Stitt blows “Start of the Blues.”
To the useless man honking geese and the clack of typewriter keys are music,
youngsters screaming on a tilt-a-whirl, the tick of a automotive’s hood because the metallic cools down.
The useless man thinks mountains aren’t actually severe.
If the useless man is afraid of demise, he doesn’t present it.
These poems initially appeared in American Poetry Overview.
