Best Barbarian by Roger Reeves

Author:Roger Reeves
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2022-02-11T00:00:00+00:00

ODE TO PABLO NERUDA’S “ODE TO A LEMON”

“Out of lemon flowers loosed on the moonlight,”

Me touching the “barbarous gold” with my mouth—

“The breast and nipple.” To fall into the world as this

Yellow clamoring of God—is this not ecstasy—

Lying in bed with ink, book, and lemons,

Mouth to the lemons, to ink, me, lashed and lashed

By a poet whose revenge against the State is cutting

Open a piece of yellow fruit slowly in front of it;

The juice, in its bizarre light and running

Along the Senate floor, is the exile’s homeland

Beyond burning and exile. “The harbors

Are big with it.” Death hangs fire at the water’s edge

Ready to become a field of smoke with you in it,

But there in your pocket, a lemon and a knife—

The rind pierced, the sound of which is a statehouse

Burning, ash without its requisite singing. Now sing.

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