Arielle Greenberg poem

Arielle Greenberg
 
 
THIS TRAIN
 
What comes more often than kisses to pollen in this train.
This train, the hands of god which are falsely.
The people who sleep with their socks on,
who slip their shoes off, into the hushtrip.
What comes more often than this punishment is.
And your father cannot hear anymore; he drives.
 
This train, the hands of god which are falsely.
A cavity of pain which makes the hollow of sex.
Between a candle, all trains come for flight.
Electricity undoes like a later lover, a daughter.
And your father cannot hear anymore; he drives.
Plains contract: a groan along the belly of the road.
 
The people who sleep with their socks on,
day is over to them, adoring and abandoned.
The inside of her long body is a yellow flower.
Breathe here, in the small hole your life has made.
What comes more often than kisses to pollen is this train.
An egg, the day has frozen to the palms of your hands.
 
 
From Verse, Volume 18, Numbers 2/3 (2001). Reprinted in Given (Verse Press, 2002). All rights reserved.

Other contributors to this issue include Coleman Barks, Josh Bell, Kate Clanchy, Gillian Conoley, Joshua Corey, Timothy Donnelly, Vona Groarke, Matthea Harvey, Stephen Healey, Christine Hume, Henri Israeli, L.S. Klatt, Caroline Knox, Kevin Larimer, Timothy Liu, Malinda Markham, Peter Minter, Don Paterson, Simon Perchik, Peter Ramos, Claudia Rankine, Peter Richards, David Roderick, Tessa Rumsey, Fiona Sampson, Robyn Schiff, Eleni Sikelianos, Ales Steger, Jesper Svenbro, Karen Volkman, Diane Wald, Chris Wallace-Crabbe, William D Waltz, and Dara Wier.

There also are interviews with Claudia Rankine and Conor O'Callaghan, and reviews of 22 books, including The Tablets by Armand Schwerner, Reluctant Gravities by Rosmarie Waldrop, Louise in Love by Mary Jo Bang, The Chime by Cort Day, Isolato by Larissa Szporluk, Republics of Reality by Charles Bernstein, New Addresses by Kenneth Koch, Civilian Histories by Lee Upton, Pages by John Matthias, Feast and A Ballad for Metka Krasovec by Tomaz Salamun, Word of Mouth: An Anthology of Gay American Poetry edited by Timothy Liu, and Calyx: 30 Contemporary Australian Poets edited by Peter Minter and Michael Brennan.

To order this issue, send a check for $6 with a note to Verse, Dept of English, Univ of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. The original cover price was $9. The issue is 240 pages long.