Poem of the Day
1981
By Asiya Wadud
in a world the orange sun resets
in a world the orange sun resets
What a rough night! It’s either no dreams at all,
or else a dream that may or may not be
a dream portending loss.
Where this floated up from, or why,
I don’t know. But thinking about this
since just after Robert called
Drawing paper down from the cupboard sky
goes in at the top scribble scrabble
green line grass for the bottom filling
Tonight I hear machines at their dark work in the dark, I understand
the sound they make among the gaps between the trees
And the wingspan?
It varies; it can be
in microns, in centimeters, in meters.
Nulli se dicit mulier mea nubere malle
quam mihi, non si se Iuppiter ipse petat.
dicit: sed mulier cupido quod dicit amanti
Damon the artisan (none as fine as
he in the Peloponnese) is
fashioning the Retinue of Dionysus
He’s gone from him forever, and ever since he’s sought
his lips on the lips of every boy he goes to bed with,
wanting to fool himself into thinking those are the very
But you, are you Christians?
So be it, you are Christians.
At night one could be.
In the seething almost Indian heat
of an exaggerated July in the city
the remaining inhabitants cautiously