Poem of the Day
Yellow Striped Pajamas
By Shamsher Bahadur Singh
walking silently on his paws, he emerges from the semidarkness and disappears into it.
walking silently on his paws, he emerges from the semidarkness and disappears into it.
That rusting water tower collapsing
on its ruin was the movie theater
where you sat in smoky consternation
The empty mills brood on the river, grim
with boarded doors and blackened eyes as bleak
as those of men who might have tales to spin
The money, he asks, haven’t you
thought about the money?
We’re feeding her
Best of all things are the lights in the sky
but what I am seeking is sleep.
Or not sleep exactly,
You think of moving the captured submarine
to a permanent berth alongside the museum
in your city. A retired engineer who spent
I can answer only to Adonis—
call me that, and you'll find I'm easily
managed. Some time ago, I was promised
Through the toxic atmosphere,
beneath the neon light of a pistachio moon,
I see my lover’s perfect, unkempt
I have not forgotten, neighbor,
our red brick rowhouse, tiny and quiet
with the window always cracked open
even in winter
In the high school band, knees furiously
Pumping while atop her hat
She wore a great white plume.
The sand scorches
the tendons
of my perforated neck