Poem-A-Day: Domestic by Deborah Landau

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Domestic by Deborah Landau   At night, down the hall into the bedroom we go. In the morning we enter the kitchen. Places, please. On like this, without alarm. I am the talker and taker he is the giver and the bedroom man. We are out of order but not broken. He says, let's make this one short. She says, what do you mean? We set out and got nearer. Along the way some loved ones died. Whole summers ruined that way. Take me to the door, take me in your arms. Mother's been dead a decade but her voice comes back to me now and often. Life accumulates, a series of commas, first this, then that, then him, then here. A clump of matter (paragraph) and here we are: minutes, years. Wait, I am trying to establish something with these people. Him, her, him. We make a little pantomime. Family, I say, wake up. The sentences one then another one, in a line. And then we go on like that, for a long time. Copyright © 2013 by Deborah Landau. Used with permission of the author. About this Poem:   "'Domestic' is part of a new manuscript, The Uses of the Body, which explores themes of gender, desire, marriage, monogamy, mortality (subjects I've written about previously) as well as pregnancy, childbirth, motherhood (subjects I've been reluctant to explore in poetry for fear of risking sentimentality). Although this material may seem familiar, I feel compelled to find fresh language, form, and syntax that can capture the immense strangeness of these experiences. This poem ('Domestic') comes at the end of a long sequence about marriage and domestic life."   Deborah Landau Poetry by Landau The Last Usable Hour   Poem-A-Day launched in 2006 and features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day archive.   Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem In Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org. February 13, 2013  Deborah Landau is the   author of two books of   poetry, The Last  Usable Hour (Copper   Canyon Press, 2011)  and Orchidelirium  (Anhinga Press,  2004). She is the  Director of the Creative  Writing Program at New  York University. Related Poems Living Room Altar by Catherine Barnett Domestic Mysticism by Lucie Brock-Broido I'm Over the Moon by Brenda Shaughnessy

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