Featured Poem 4/20/06

Perseveration

           It is difficult to fall asleep on this earth.
           —Yevgeny Yevtushenko

All the road rage, rolling blackouts,
oil-soaked birds, burning
stacks of spongy-brained cows,
unwelcome darlings suffocated,

all the bodies slicked together
like wet paper in desire
and need, cries of pain
or longing interchangeable,

all the prayers like rosaries of
barking geese, a traffic
jam around the moon,
the whole planet crying mercy,

and the tarnished soup spoons
of your own complaints
banging on the dented saucepan
of your heart, a racketing

like New Year’s Eve at midnight,
our hopes and terrors
launched like rockets
out beyond the crimped clouds.

Susan Elbe
First published in Margie (Vol. 4, Fall, 2005)

 

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