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.
This is the house the South built.
This is the mouse that gnawed at the house
The South built. This is the cat
Within 電 a field poetics:
sky, rain, lightning over la milpa—
components in the symbol
I shall have Beauty underground.
Poppæa was once in my tumbrel, you see.
So were blithe Helen and white Iope
We often elude the scimitars
of the Zouaves among the furniture
by being geese.
And does the wolf still pace the shore.
Still pace, still pace, still pace, still pace.
The shore how still.
XXXIV
We are falling through the abyss Voices, of terror,
come to me I try to answer but sense
even higher
among the oaks
there is nothing but oaks
we had climbed up the mountain
towards the colossal figure of the temple
now reduced to ruins
I am riding down Fifth Avenue on a bus. A woman touches my leg and speaks of forests. My need unfolds like a newborn’s limb, stiff and uncertain. She whispers close and I tremble as we reach my stop.
Yes these are mine
I carry them from shower to dreams
and sniff them in dark dawns