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
The door. If you pull it it’s heavy; if you
push it it’s hard.
Bands of distracted emotions snap getting
wider as daytime colors sink and roll on their
sides.
I needed a long bus ride up-
town like a new hole oh well
I woke up remembered “It is a day”
& went out to make it
be a day
I’ve meant to tell you many things about my life,
& every time the moment has conquered me.
I am convinced that if I died she would be really annoyed. So when I realized this—that die “real” is actual and potential —I could swing both bodies at once. And one morning on the broad avenue I did and she was there. Her reaction—whirrr clikk—pure nonchalance, walking along as if she were totally somewhere else holding hands with a moth. The sheerest nerve can catch die smallest thought. Read on and learn why.
Plan ofthe city of O. The great square
curves down toward the Cathedral. The
water runs out into night where the patron
Numbskull, inject
At first there seems a placid lake
on which
The great
The great central
central icon
I breathe the noxious air because it is there
Set free at the last moment
a green cloth folds