Best American Poetry 2017 by David Lehman

Author:David Lehman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner

from Prairie Schooner

A. E. STALLINGS

* * *

Shattered

Another smashed glass,

wrong end of a gauche gesture

towards a cliff—compass-

rose of mis-direc-

tions, scattered to the twelve winds,

the wine-dark sea wreck.

Wholeness won’t stay put.

Why these sweeping conclusions?

Always you’re barefoot,

nude-soled in a room

fanged with recriminations,

leaning on a broom.

How can you know what’s

missing, unless you puzzle

all the shards? What cuts

is what’s overlooked,

the sliver of the unseen,

faceted, edged, hooked,

unremarked atom

of remorse broadcast across

lame linoleum.

Archaeologist

of the just-made mistake, sift

smithereens of schist

for the unhidden

right-in-plain-sight needling

mote in the midden.

Fragments, say your feet,

make the shivered, shimmering

brokenness complete.

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