Poem of the Day
1981
By Asiya Wadud
in a world the orange sun resets
in a world the orange sun resets
Here I am born a brilliant mistake from infinity
And the idea of existence reminds me of turtles
Today I am in the room watching the sun evaporate.
To no longer perform in broad daylight,
the apple's a radish for it,
the winter chill a living thing.
It’s a socket—I don’t know how,
but you soon learn to count millions into that province
In the daylight there were
small whimpers made by the African cat
Which is actually a tree
you cannot recognize
The first of the undecoded messages read: “Popeye sits in thunder,
Unthought of. From that shoebox of an apartment,
From livid curtain’s hue, a tanagram emerges: a country.”
The landlady’s wearing her OLD WOMAN costume—
Shirakawa head-rag, blue droopy bloomers.
White balloon-sleeve apron top.
The gulls glide, in 1939, into the bonus of another country,
the balloons and machinery of all the Europes and Americas,
a hundred million words at ease in the river,
It’s time again.
Tear up the violets
and plant something more difficult to grow.