Could Have Danced All Night by Dean Young

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend August 6, 2014   Could Have Danced All Night   Dean Young

The wolf appointed to tear me apart is sure making slow work of it. This morning just one eye weeping, a single chip out of my back and the usual maniacal wooden bird flutes in the brain. Listen to that feeble howl like having fangs is something to regret, like we shouldn’t give thanks for blood thirst. Even my idiot neighbor backing out without looking could do a better job, even that leaning diseased tree or dream of a palsied hand squeezing the throat but we’ve been at this for years, lying exposed on the couch in the fat of the afternoon, staring down the moon among night blooms. What good’s a reluctant wolf anyway? The other wolves just get it drunk then tie it to a post. Poor pup. Here’s my hand. Bite.            Copyright © 2014 by Dean Young Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “I wrote this poem after being sick for a couple days and realizing I had yet again survived.  So it’s about the sort of cockiness one has about still being alive.” —Dean Young   Dean Young is the author of Bender (Copper Canyon Press, 2012).  He teaches at the University of Texas in Austin. Most Recent Book by Young   Bender (Copper Canyon Press, 2012) "Anxieties" by Donna Masini "Plural Happiness" by David Rivard "Lucky" by Tony Hoagland Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. 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.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038