Poem-A-Day: Multiple Man: Guest-starring me & you by Gary Jackson

March 27, 2014 Multiple Man: Guest-starring me & you by Gary Jackson     Every night I sleep on alternate   sides of the bed, as if to duplicate sleeping with you. If   I'm fast enough, I'm the warmth of my own body beside me, reach   out and touch myself. Breach the blue of my bones, breathe in my own ear.   You left me. Lying here, I left you to be with me.   Someone asks if your body was worth trading for mine.   My sin was always pride. Did you want a man that sleeps   with himself to keep the bed warm? I need you like the earth   needed the flood after dearth.     Copyright © 2014 by Gary Jackson. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem  "That first night you're back to sleeping alone again, expecting another body beside you, and the physical absence is so jarring that you think what if I could become the body I miss? Multiple Man could do it, but I can't. And of course he's a mutant superhero, because I can't help myself."     --Gary Jackson Most Recent Book by Jackson     Missing You, Metropolis (Graywolf Press, 2010)            Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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.     Gary Jackson is the author of Missing You, Metropolis (Graywolf Press, 2010). He teaches at Central New Mexico Community College and Murray State University, and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Related Poems Textbook & Absence (Anatomy) by Catherine Barnett Love Letter to a Stranger by Jenny Browne My Skeleton by Jane Hirshfield  __________________________ 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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