A Yellow Leaf by Ariana Reines

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend November 30, 2015   A Yellow Leaf   Ariana Reines

It’s shivering Like a little lady rattling her bell Calling for tea Quivering in the old style   There’s a red light in Boston At the close of day Like the red light of idiocy All along the bricks Of Harvard Yard & a blue Sky so hard & irradiated In the way of old cinema Whose screens Reflect the pops & black Rot spattered As though it were something Perhaps nice As if to say please No extra charge Please Visualize now the idea of your blind spot I will even do it for you As the physical reel unspools & unspools & you blink In a dark Room narrow with shadows Narrow shadows like avant-gardes   It was a dream that woke up The Fall   It really is something A sick feeling Like stopping lying A dangerous feeling Like giving up trying to live as though you were otherwise   As though my mouth could water along the split Waistlines of all the apricot colored squashes As though the real pumpkins, horns Of plenty at my hearth & in my wealth, my death Were visibly grinning Thru the rosebud lip of womanhood Behind which all the women I really am (they claim) Hide behind my face & do their flips Behind my teeth In the red darkness there In my potions In my chemicals In the mouth I never use In my poisonous mouth            Copyright © 2015 by Ariana Reines. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “‘The worlds revolve like ancient women / Gathering fuel in ancient lots,’ wrote T. S. Eliot. At times I have the peculiar sense these revolving women, like worlds, are seething in my blood: it’s exhilarating, and unbearable. But then you write a poem and you’re fine.” —Ariana Reines   Ariana Reines is the author of Mercury (Fence Books, 2011). She has taught at UC Berkeley, Columbia University, and Tufts University, and now works as an astrologer. She lives in Queens, New York. Poetry by Reines   Mercury (Fence Books, 2011) from "You Are in Nearly Every Future" by Noah Falck "Fall" by Edward Hirsch "Axis Mundi" by Harriet Levin Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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