Poem of the Day
1981
By Asiya Wadud
in a world the orange sun resets
in a world the orange sun resets
Better homes and gardens for many
but for the rest, we are not so sure.
We need a place to turn around and be unctuous
There is a tremendous interest in dog-related items,
such as dog-paintings. once they figured out how to print on tin,
copper and silver with the horn on it,
Barely tolerated, living on the margin
In our technological society, we were always having to be rescued
On the brink of destruction, like heroines in Orlando Furioso
The immense hope, and forbearance
Trailing out of night, to sidewalks of the day
Like air breathed into a paper city, exhaled
Impatient as we were for all of them to join us,
The land had not yet risen into view: gulls had swept the gray steel towers away
So that it profited less to go searching, away over the humming earth
It was always November there. The farms
Were a kind of precinct; a certain control
Had been exercised. The little birds
When they passed through a city, it was others knew it first.
The man claimed no lift in his shoe but an advertisement for the dance
left over from the last street but one.
I thought that if I could put it all down, that would be one way. And next the thought came to me that to leave all out, would be another, and truer, way.
clean-washed sea
The flowers were.
Here in the open, love lies apart,
singing to its beads. How reflective is that?
Don’t be such a goose, love said.
He has a lazy father in Minnesota.
I hope you never have to do this in life, with its crazy little darkened
rooms. People are standing, an accurate jumble. Famille rose happy campers.