Poem-A-Day: Conspiracy to Commit Larceny: A Recipe by Jennifer Militello

Conspiracy to Commit Larceny: A Recipe   by Jennifer Militello     Take the man you think you love and his  fabulous lips. Take him from one place  to the next. Let him drive your car. Let him  drive it through the mood-crazed woods  until it overheats. Let the nights feed  from your eyes as you look at him. Do  not turn on the heat. Do not spill  the flavored oils of the heart. Do not  eat from the palm of your hand  a fluid ounce of what you may need.  Do something illegal. You only have to be  there when they bring the contraband in.  You only have to leave yourself behind.  The stars know. The police will prowl  your neighborhood until the plate number  matches and the car checks out.  When they bring you in, you  must remove your shoes and belt.  You must pretend there was no felony.  Then you must confess. Add your past,  a pinch of the rage you feel, and how  you sit until your father bursts in  and asks whether you have been arrested.  Add a mother who tells you she is  ashamed. An expensive lawyer. The way  you remember the taste of his kiss and  how real he was and how he would  drive dark roads at high speeds through  the back woods with the headlights off.  Remember what the stars see. And how  once it is over the lawyer will send  a letter saying he said you knew nothing,  saying he tried to keep you out of it,  though the police said he had given  you up as they made you say his name.        Copyright © 2013 by Jennifer Militello. Used with permission of the author.   About This Poem "When I was eighteen, I was arrested for a crime I didn't know I had committed. The result is a poem about risk, and about the complications that come with being young. The experience ended up folded into a recipe for falling in love with someone dangerous and then having your innocence be even more dangerous to them."    --Jennifer Militello Most Recent Book by Militello Body Thesaurus (Tupelo Press, 2013)   August 12, 2013 Jennifer Militello's second and most recent book of poems is Body Thesaurus (Tupelo Press, 2013). Militello is the founding director of the creative writing program at River Valley Community College. She lives in Goffstown, New Hampshire. Militello will be reading tomorrow night at the New York Public Library as part of the Academy's Summer Reading Series. Related Poems Against Pleasure by Robin Becker Demon and the Dove by Miguel Murphy They Romp with Wooly Canines by Patricia Smith Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day 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.

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