A Poem by Dorothea Lasky

by Mark Bibbins, Editor

The Static Nature of It All

I wake up in a house full of trash
And eat some cheese before I go out in the heat
Everything just doesn’t move
When you can’t make it to
Another day, another let me think about this
But you don’t call you don’t write you don’t care
You don’t want to see me
I want to see you so bad
But what is the trees that give shade
Even in my own voice I am calming
But what are the glowing yellow bunnies I kick around
You know what is going on
Still you stand there stand there
Even though I am the one from the other world
Who is in love with you
It’s hard for me even to defend you
To the legions of seers, crazy birds and bugs
That I call my “friends”
Even as they try to mix the potions for me
They can’t help but ask me why why
Why this one
And it’s hard for me to say anything
When you just sit there every day, so still and boring
Just the static nature of it
And I go looking looking for you in the streets
And I never find you
I never find you at all

ROME, Dorothea Lasky’s fourth collection of poems, has just been published by Liveright.

You will find more poems here. You may contact the editor at [email protected].