The Selected Levis by Larry Levis

Author:Larry Levis [Levis, Larry]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Poetry
ISBN: 9780822991069
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

3.

In 1965, if anything was worth worshipping in that city,

It was in the old neighborhood rife with eucalyptus & a few, brooding mulberries,

It was the lioness asleep in the zoo, unmoved by the taunts

Of children or the trash they threw, sometimes on fire for a moment, into her cage.

It was the way she endured it: heat, rain, misfortune; turning on her heels always

Away from you as if there were two worlds, as if you were lost

In this one. She could have killed a man with one swipe

Of her paw, but she did not. And that is why, in the next world,

She has come back as a poem already written for her, & hidden

In this one. This one which fills us with longing. Which bores her.

In 1965 in that city, no one knew less than a boy of nineteen, still a virgin,

Still brimming over with extinct love;

His face shining with acne he'd rubbed raw with a hand towel

To make it disappear; instead, it blistered, & later,

Looking in the mirror, he thought such blisters might be

The visible evidence of the soul. Laugh, if you want to;

After all, the next world is a lioness & she moves without history, like a lioness,

And without mistakes. Besides, it's twenty years later.

By now that boy's already poured his first drink of the evening;

So have you, & no tense is as sad as the future's.

If I'm not laughing with you it's because I'm talking to myself again:

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.