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
When I see driven nails I think of the hammer and the hand,
his mood, the weather, the time of year, what he packed
for lunch, how built up was the house,
When I was twelve,
My tennis coach asked me
To pose for him after practice.
In the moment of death
can I climb through the bright rectangle
into the resurrection
Out of the twilight a small voice
hisses shut up, just shut the fuck up.
And on the receiver’s live air, the insistent hello
from someone who has refused to hang up, the plea
divorced from all name and form,
Inside the shelter of another morning.
The escaping minutes that bottle bees ride,
phone numbers carved into the walls.
Rembrandt, 63
The surprise always
something has not abandoned us,
the way, standing there, another’s
expression as you realize
When my right hand—
When the hand that had been mine—
When I found that hand
curling inward stayed
curled
protestations meant nothing; prayers.
Thinking, not thinking—
nothing.
Telipinu went, and he brought away the good. He brought away the plenty, the grain, and the wood.
When the Moon fell, he fell from heaven, and no one saw him fall.