Showers by D. Nurkse

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 7, 2015   Showers   D. Nurkse

The child tells me, put a brick in the tank,   don’t wear leather, don’t eat brisket, snapper, or farmed salmon—not tells, orders—doesn’t she know the sluice gates are wide open and a trillion gallons wasted just for the dare of it?     Until the staring eye shares that thrill, witnessing: I am just iris and cornea, blind spot where brain meets mind, the place where the image forms itself from a spark—image of the coming storm.   Still the child waits outside the bathroom with the watch she got for Best Essay, muttering, two minutes too long.   Half measures, I say. She says, action. I: I’m one man. She: Seven billion.    If you choose, the sea goes back.            Copyright © 2015 by D. Nurkse. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “Hopeless poems about the unimaginable future can seem voyeuristic. Hopeful ones can feel fake. ‘Showers’ is trying to find a balance, but not the middle ground of compromise. The child is real.” —D. Nurkse   D. Nurkse is the author of A Night in Brooklyn (Knopf, 2012). He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in Brooklyn, New York.   Photo credit: Chris Taggart; courtesy of Sarah Lawrence College Most Recent Book by Nurkse   A Night in Brooklyn (Knopf, 2012) "Theories of Time and Space" by Natasha Trethewey "Untranslatable Song" by Claudia Reder "After Us" by Nikola Madzirov Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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