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.
Nothing could be predicted. Behind the closed lid, the outstretched hand, what streamers, shocks, accordions of foam!
I tried using my high position to make everyone wear little hats.
In Montmartre, far from the sea he loved, crippled
by arthritis, Corbière nailed up over his chimney
the dried carcass of a toad.
You are the toy that dies
you are the movie
& the theatre
This ought to be in Russian
Cyrillic and emotional!
Like “The Poems of Yuri Zhivago”
If you could tell me this sense of digression
And certain proclivity toward suffering, that
This will be settled on some future date, justifying
Ho Chi Minh was our real President
The one we counted on
For right decisions
panels doors niches garlands keystones
gargoyles columns cornices turrets trees
chimneys palimpsests lamp posts lace gates
Some men, who collaborated self-consciously
with killers behind a one-way mirror darkly,
catching their breaths on every errant wind,
On a wooden platform in the center of the room
The young dancer stood, her naked feet in position:
The man would rather gaze at her white feet forever
Than ever hold them in his hands, paying her well