Poem of the Day
1981
By Asiya Wadud
in a world the orange sun resets
in a world the orange sun resets
Chott
Through the tent flap, across the air mattress, up over my shoulder blade,
The blindfold of sunlight slips into place. On your borrowed Walkman
1. THE CHANTING IN TIBET HAS NOT CEASED IT IS AS IMMORTAL AS MEAT IS.
2. HORNS, CYMBALS, AND LIGHTNING BOLTS OVER GLACIERS.
3. BEARDED SEA OTTERS CRACKING MUSSELS ON STONES ON THEIR STOMACHS.
YEAH, OR MAYBE LIVE IN FANTASIES / WITHIN A DOLPHIN'S SKULL!
And there you are, painted into the picture :
Bricklayers and courtiers are making their beds
In apartments on the margins behind you.
Could you not look after me another day?
Why did you go alone? I leave in only another day.
If your gravestone is not erased first my head will be.
Bathwater smells like it.
Like when you turn left off Percival
onto Smallwood and pass Old Percival
I came from life from living I arrived
Nowhere in the midst of God in the midst of God
God is a city in which no one has ever lived
squirrel killer
predawn snacker
Nobody lives
above me,
In a deep well I swung a pickax
into packed caliche, so dark I aimed the ax
by feel. My brother leaned back safe