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
I.
I will tell you. Maybe
You’re leaning in the open
Doorway of some Irish bar,
It was I think in a small town in Ohio
I taped to the wall above my office desk the postcard
Of Klimt's painting called The Park
Home is helped into view a cluster
of first-reel iconographic
ships, much sunnier rays—
I dreamed I bad been dreaming.
And sadness did descend.
And when from the first dreaming
Even the moon has its own snail,
Gnomic, removed
Under miles of water, its pale
Her warmth had fallen on silence, in spite of all promises. . .
rank after rank they bled, according to their caste
each rank a source for the next of savage harvest.
The room is dying honey and lemon rind.
Because of one blow
I have entered the celibacy
Of silence
I know there is a window
Opening onto
A garden
In a deck chair
under castellated clouds
Campari and tonic