from The Uses of the Body by Deborah Landau

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend April 13, 2015   from The Uses of the Body   Deborah Landau

Before you have kids, you get a dog.   Then when you get a baby, you wait for the dog to die.   When the dog dies, it’s a relief.   When your babies aren’t babies, you want a dog again.   The uses of the body, you see where they end.   But we are only in the middle, only mid-way.   The organs growing older in their plush pockets ticking toward the wearing out.   We are here and soon won’t be (despite the cozy bed stuffed dog pillows books clock).   The boy with his socks on and pajamas. A series of accidental collisions.   Pressure in the chest. Everyone breathing for now, in and out, all night.   These sad things, they have to be. I go into the kitchen thinking to sweeten myself.   Boiled eggs won’t do a thing. Oysters. Lysol. Peanut butter. Gin.   Big babyface, getting fed. I am twenty. I am thirty. I am forty years old.   A friend said Listen, you have to try to calm down.            Copyright © 2015 by Deborah Landau. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “This poem is an excerpt from my third book, The Uses of the Body. Linked lyric sequences comprise the collection—which takes the unruly, wayward body as its central preoccupation, and considers the pleasures and complexities of marriage and domestic life.” —Deborah Landau   Deborah Landau is the author of three books of poems, including The Uses of the Body (Copper Canyon Press, 2015). She teaches in and directs the Creative Writing Program at New York University and lives in Brooklyn.   Photo credit: Sarah Shatz Most Recent Book by Landau   The Uses of the Body (Copper Canyon Press, 2015) "Manic Panic" by Marisa Crawford "Fear of the Future" by John Koethe "Affirmation" by Donald Hall Read This Poem   For National Poetry Month, we’ve teamed up with 826 National to produce Read This Poem, a celebration of poets in cities with 826 chapters. Read this week’s featured poems by poets from Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. 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