Poem of the Day
Study of Children
By Asha Futterman
did you know
that you all work for me?
I asked them as a joke
did you know
that you all work for me?
I asked them as a joke
Power rigs drift like lights out past the breakwater,
white, and fluorescent white.
The sea moving them up and down
One of these days, if I can get up the nerve, I think I’ll cut
off a piece of my own head and eat it.
June is a migraine above the eyes,
Strict auras and yellow blots,
green screen and tunnel vision,
Sundown smoke like a pink snood
over the gathered hair of the mountains,
The sun a garish hatpin
Darkened by time, the masters, like our memories, mix
And mismatch,
and settle about our lawn furniture, like air
I love the egg.
I even love my poor, thick, mysterious skull.
Piece by small piece the world falls away from us like spores
From a milkweed pod,
Friday arrives with all its attendant ecstasies.
Mirrors bloom in the hushed beds.
The ocotillo begins to publish its orange tongues