other people’s poetry
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‘Halo’ by Ailbhe Darcy
It was late last night the dog was speaking of me,and the gulls speaking of me, out over the field.You were drawing water from the tap in the kitchenand a moth was speaking of me, beating for light. I was raising delft from the sink to the aumbry,while they spoke of you in loops, over…
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‘American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin’ by Terrance Hayes
I only intend to send word to my futureSelf perpetuation is a war against TimeTravel is essentially the aim of any religionIs blindness the color one sees under waterBreath can be overshadowed in darknessThe benefits of blackness can seem radicalBlack people in America are rarely compulsiveIs forbidden the only word God doesn’t knowYou have to…
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‘Forgive Her’ by Forough Farrokhzad
Forgive her.Sometimes she forgetsshe is painfully the sameas stagnant water,hollow ditches, foolishly imaginesshe has the right to exist. Forgivea portrait’s listless rage,whose longing for movementmelts in her paper eyes. Forgive this woman whose casket is washed overby a flowing red moon,her body’s thousand-year sleepperturbed by night’s stormy scent. Forgive this woman who’s crumbling inside,but whose…
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‘When Adults Talk’ by Mary Ruefle
I am not even vaguely interested, though for a quarter I could be. I was not allowed to move but when my leg went deadI cheered it on in the first place. When they whisper they ought to wear a lead vest.Their lips look like personified oysters. When they shout it is usually addressedto the…
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‘Shhh’ by Eileen Myles
Shhh I don’t thinkI can afford the time to not sit right down &write a poem about the heavy liddedwhite rose I hold in my handI think of snowa winter night in Boston, drunken waitressstumble on a bus that careens throughSomerville the end of the linewhere I was born, an old manshaking me. He could’ve…
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‘Noir, NJ’ by Paul Muldoon
When I wake up in a strange bed Beside a girl called Pam I try to play the whole thing down And give my name as Sam It’s clear I’m way out of my depth It’s clear that she’s dropped a dime It’s clear that even I suspect I’m guilty of some crime I know…
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“Ballad of the Savage Tiger” by Li He
No one attacks it with a long lance, No one plies a strong cross-bow. Suckling its grandsons, rearing its cubs, It trains them into savagery. Its reared head becomes a wall Its waving tail becomes a banner. Even Huang from the Eastern Sea,¹ Dreaded to see it after dark, A righteous tiger, met on the road,²…
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‘Afro’ by Morgan Parker
from There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé by Morgan Parker
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“Aubade Sung at Laetare a Year Ago” by Guillaume Apollinaire
It’s spring come out Esther you should Take a walk in the pretty woods The hens are clucking in the yard Dawn’s pink folds are shooting skyward And love is coming to steal your heart Mars and Venus have come back anew They give each other mad kisses An innocent interlude While beneath the fluttering…
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