Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems (Wesleyan Poetry Series) by Yusef Komunyakaa

Author:Yusef Komunyakaa
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Wesleyan
Published: 2013-09-15T05:00:00+00:00

Magic City

Venus’s-flytraps

I am five,

Wading out into deep

Sunny grass,

Unmindful of snakes

& yellowjackets, out

To the yellow flowers

Quivering in sluggish heat.

Don’t mess with me

’Cause I have my Lone Ranger

Six-shooter. I can hurt

You with questions

Like silver bullets.

The tall flowers in my dreams are

Big as the First State Bank,

& they eat all the people

Except the ones I love.

They have women’s names,

With mouths like where

Babies come from. I am five.

I’ll dance for you

If you close your eyes. No

Peeping through your fingers.

I don’t supposed to be

This close to the tracks.

One afternoon I saw

What a train did to a cow.

Sometimes I stand so close

I can see the eyes

Of men hiding in boxcars.

Sometimes they wave

& holler for me to get back. I laugh

When trains make the dogs

Howl. Their ears hurt.

I also know bees

Can’t live without flowers.

I wonder why Daddy

Calls Mama honey.

All the bees in the world

Live in little white houses

Except the ones in these flowers.

All sticky & sweet inside.

I wonder what death tastes like.

Sometimes I toss the butterflies

Back into the air.

I wish I knew why

The music in my head

Makes me scared.

But I know things

I don’t supposed to know.

I could start walking

& never stop.

These yellow flowers

Go on forever.

Almost to Detroit.

Almost to the sea.

My mama says I’m a mistake.

That I made her a bad girl.

My playhouse is underneath

Our house, & I hear people

Telling each other secrets.

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