I Wont Lie This Plague of Gratitude
by Kaveh Akbar
I
won’t lie this plague of gratitude
________is hard to bear I was comfortable
in my native pessimism not this spun-
________sugar fantasy last night I made actual
________is hard to bear I was comfortable
in my native pessimism not this spun-
________sugar fantasy last night I made actual
______________cake
there were no worms in the flour no
________bloody whirls in the eggs afterwards the minor
______________holiday below my waistband remained festive
________ as ever when I touched two breasts each one
________bloody whirls in the eggs afterwards the minor
______________holiday below my waistband remained festive
________ as ever when I touched two breasts each one
was
my favorite not long ago I was hard to even
________hug like ribbons of cartilage cut
from a lamb I dressed in shredded roses
________and pistachio shells I drank an entire language
________hug like ribbons of cartilage cut
from a lamb I dressed in shredded roses
________and pistachio shells I drank an entire language
______________ and
flung tar at whatever moved
__________until the world cut me open like a tube of paint
______________ until it crushed me between its fingers
__________like a hornet none of it was graceful
__________until the world cut me open like a tube of paint
______________ until it crushed me between its fingers
__________like a hornet none of it was graceful
I
had to learn to love people one at a time
________singing hey diddle diddle will you suffer me
a little how could they say no
________how could they say anything I kept
________singing hey diddle diddle will you suffer me
a little how could they say no
________how could they say anything I kept
biting their tongues I kept clicking
___________my heels now I am cheery
_______________ and Germanic like a drawer full
___________of strudel I always wanted to be a saint
___________my heels now I am cheery
_______________ and Germanic like a drawer full
___________of strudel I always wanted to be a saint
but
I thought I’d be one of the miserable
________ones sainted by pain burnt alive inside
a brazen bull instead I weep openly at obnoxious
________beauty cello music comes in
________ones sainted by pain burnt alive inside
a brazen bull instead I weep openly at obnoxious
________beauty cello music comes in
________________from
blocks away and I lose it completely
________ there is a word for these fits of incomprehensible
________________delight I said it last night
________ when my mouth was full of cake
Kaveh Akbar’s poems have appeared in Poetry, APR, Guernica, PBS NewsHour, Boston Review, and elsewhere. He is the author of the forthcoming chapbook Portrait of the Alcoholic (Sibling Rivalry Press, January 2017) and full-length collection Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James Books, late 2017). He is the recipient of a 2016 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a Pushcart Prize, and the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, He was born in Tehran, Iran and currently lives and teaches in Florida.
________ there is a word for these fits of incomprehensible
________________delight I said it last night
________ when my mouth was full of cake
Kaveh Akbar’s poems have appeared in Poetry, APR, Guernica, PBS NewsHour, Boston Review, and elsewhere. He is the author of the forthcoming chapbook Portrait of the Alcoholic (Sibling Rivalry Press, January 2017) and full-length collection Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James Books, late 2017). He is the recipient of a 2016 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a Pushcart Prize, and the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, He was born in Tehran, Iran and currently lives and teaches in Florida.
This poem was originally published in Black
Warrior Review and is shared here with
the generous permission of the author. Read more about the author here.
Photo of Pier Angeli by Alan Grant.
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