Summer by Robin Coste Lewis

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend July 31, 2015   Summer   Robin Coste Lewis

Last summer, two discrete young snakes left their skin on my small porch, two mornings in a row. Being post-modern now, I pretended as if I did not see them, nor understand what I knew to be circling inside me. Instead, every hour I told my son to stop with his incessant back-chat. I peeled a banana. And cursed God—His arrogance, His gall—to still expect our devotion after creating love. And mosquitoes. I showed my son the papery dead skins so he could know, too, what it feels like when something shows up at your door—twice—telling you what you already know.            Copyright © 2015 by Robin Coste Lewis. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “I’m interested in Descartes’s mind/body split, how our disembodied go-go-go lives are often interrupted by events, coincidences, individuals—signs—those moments that remind us, blatantly, of all those sensations we hope to repress. In short, then, I suppose this poem is about that brilliant trickster Denial’s natural triumph over our own self-perception.” —Robin Coste Lewis   Robin Coste Lewis is the author of Voyage of the Sable Venus (Knopf, 2015). She is a Provost’s Fellow at the University of Southern California and lives in Los Angeles. Poetry by Coste Lewis   Voyage of the Sable Venus  (Knopf, 2015) "Brief Lives [excerpt]" by Ken Chen "Duende" by Tracy K. Smith "Kitchen Maid with Supper at Emmaus, or The Mulata" by Natasha Trethewey Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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