A Poem By Lee Upton

by Mark Bibbins, Editor

An Epic for Mother’s Day

Epic: “a poem including history” — Ezra Pound

A poem with history
a history with poems in it
in history with a poem
a history of the needle and wrench and cable
and a pretty dress and a grave
and a pretty dress in a grave
roll the stone from the grave
raise the corpse and breathe into her mouth
take Ovid from the shelf and change shapes in history
in history with a poem on a cushion or in a field
or on a swing or force fed
in a house or a trench
a body that pushes history out.

Lee Upton’s most recent book is Bottle the Bottles the Bottles the Bottles

(Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2015). Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Poetry, American Poetry Review, and elsewhere.