The Past Keeps Prying at the Corners of This Narrative like a Couple of Crowbars Making Love to a Doorframe
by joshua young
so you've lost interest
in politeness
i too have lost sight of important things
& the whole evening has become
a series of spoilers
for every summer block buster
worth seeing
someone says what happened to poetry
someone else says fuck you and that poem you wrote
& someone else says you think something happened to poetry
in a workshop a professor
insists that a poem
is not poetry
but what is it then—
that gutted out building
across the street
looks like a ribcage
with a lamp for a heart
i'm not sold on your explanation
of poetry
or friendship
or love
but you're wearing
very stylish jeans
so you have some taste
then again that car you drive
spews black clouds
into the neighborhood
elliot asks me if em's parents are dead
i say yes because it is true
the earthworm changed
the american landscape fyi
what have you done
Field Notes Entry
from Even the Trees Yawn
we cannot
see the water
it's hearsay
like
what's over
that hill
it's just
more crops
& lines
of animals
cow shit
& tractors
the farms
aren't
above
sea level
& it hasn't
rained since
i don't know
on the radio
they
speak
as though
the'yre encased
in water
what
breeds
in the distance
between
where
the water is
& all this corn—
when will you
stop moving
where will
the fish gather
we're not sunk
not yet
but i want
to make this easy
if you step
into the water
you will
know its intent
there are too many
trees up here
what will
the landscape
do when it meets
the shoreline
it was never
about the fish
it wasn't
about
the downed
water silos
either
the lamb
out there
is not wandering
& when
the diesel
fumes get
trapped wait
who is that
trying
to pull
the horizons closer
you want
to know
what life
would be
like
without land
is that
splashing
coming
from the cornfield
is that turmeric
on the wall
i see a fire
i see the chain-link
but that is not
coughing
that is not
laughing
it is the sound
of pouring
Joshua reads "The Past Keeps Prying..." & "Field Notes Entry"
Joshua Young is the author of four collections, most recently The Holy Ghost People (Plays Inverse Press). He is editor-in-chief at The Lettered Streets Press. He teaches in the MFA and BA programs at Columbia College Chicago, where he is Associate Director of Creative Writing. He lives in the Wicker Park Neighborhood with this family.