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.
A dream of battle on a windy night
Has wakened him. The shadows move once more
With rumors of alarm.
Night, dark night, night of my distress...
The moon is glittering with all the tears
Of the long silence and unhappiness
Everyone at Lake Kearney had a nickname:
there was a Bumstead, a Tonto, a Tex,
and, from the slogan of a popular orchestra,
Helmet and rifle, pack and overcoat,
Marched through a forest. Somewhere up ahead
Guns thudded. Like the circle of a throat
The time is after dinner. Cigarettes
Glow on the lawn;
Glasses begin to tinkle; TV sets
The time is after dinner. Cigarettes
Glow on the lawn;
Glasses begin to tinkle; T V sets
They didn’t acknowledge my presence — they just stared.
Paranoia imposes its own vision on the external world; it differs from other kinds of visionary experience in that the paranoid wants others to share his view—even insists on it. Paranoia is very like poetic creativity.
Neither on horseback nor seated,
But like himself, squarely on two feet,
The poet of death and lilacs
These are the houses of the poor—
Strange animals ... they live in view...
That woman on the second floor,