Rapture: Lucus by Tracy Brimhall

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend August 14, 2014   Rapture: Lucus   Traci Brimhall

Posters for the missing kapok tree appear on streetlights offering a reward for its safe return. I hate to spoil it, but the end of every biography is death. The end of a city in the rainforest is a legend and a lost expedition. The end of mythology is forgetfulness, placing gifts in the hole where the worshipped tree should be. But my memory lengthens with each ending. I know where to find the lost mines of Muribeca and how to cross the Pacific on a raft made of balsa. I know the tree wasn’t stolen. She woke from her stillness some equatorial summer evening by a dream of being chased by an amorous faun, which was a memory, which reminded her that in another form she had legs and didn’t need the anxious worship of people who thought her body was a message. She is happier than the poem tattooed on her back says she is, but sadder than the finches nesting in her hair believe her to be. I am more or less content to be near her in October storms, though I can’t stop thinking that with the right love or humility or present of silk barrettes and licorice she might become a myth again in my arms, ardent wordless, needing someone to bear her away from the flood.            Copyright © 2014 by Traci Brimhall. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “This poem is part of a series I’m working on that mythologizes the town in Brazil where my mother was born and raised. Mysterious, and possibly miraculous things begin to occur there, and every resident has a different explanation. The speaker believes the reason for the miracles is a hamadryad nymph with a poem tattooed on her back, who ran away rather than be worshipped.” —Traci Brimhall   Traci Brimhall is the author of Our Lady of the Ruins (W. W. Norton, 2012). She teaches at Kansas State University and lives in Manhattan, Kansas. Most Recent Book by Brimhall   Our Lady of the Ruins (W. W. Norton, 2012) "Song" by Brigit Pegeen Kelly "Diana of the Hunt" by Forceythe Willson "Like Any Good American" by Brynn Saito Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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