Poem-A-Day: Acts of Mind by Catherine Barnett

October 7, 2013 Acts of Mind by Catherine Barnett     What's funny about this place is us regulars coming in with our different accoutrements, mine usually the little void of space I call honey, days  I can barely get through I'm laughing so hard, see? In the back a woman squeezes oranges, someone presses the fresh white bread into communion wafers or party favors. In the window the chickens rotate blissfully, questioning nothing-- Sometimes I flirt with the cashier, just improvising, the way birds land all in a hurry on the streetlamp     across the street which stays warm even on cold nights. Guillaume says humor is sadness and he's awfully pretty.  What do they put in this coffee? Men? No wonder I get a little high. Remember when we didn't have sex on the ferris wheel, oh that was a blast, high, high above the Tuileries!         Copyright © 2013 by Catherine Barnett. Used with permission of the author.   About This Poem "For two months every summer, you can pay ten euros to be lifted and spun in a little cage of air, weightless above the world's most romantic city. I did ride it once, with a friend, but I only overheard the story about a couple making love in one of the little cabooses swaying in the hot summer night wind. This poem is a celebration of solitude and desire and is suspended on the cable that connects the one to the many." --Catherine Barnett Most Recent Book by Barnett The Game of Boxes (Graywolf Press, 2012)   Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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.   Catherine Barnett is the author of two collections of poetry, Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced (Alice James Books, 2004) and The Game of Boxes (Graywolf Press, 2012). Barnett teaches at The New School and New York University. Related Poems At a Window by Carl Sandburg Drawing from Life by Reginald Shepherd Continuity by A. R. Ammons __________________________ Love reading Poem-A-Day? Help support it today.     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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