"Socks" by Margaret Ross

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend July 14, 2017   Socks   Margaret Ross

The socks came in a pack of five. What is the most boring subject possible? Translucent blue with punctures pierced to shape a star around the ankle. I carried them along the aisles as if I needed them. I fingered lacquered dishes and the rubber heads of mallets, crystal trinkets stitched to underwear. Wherever you go, this buffering. A dull hour. All that time I could have touched you and didn't or did absentminded, getting in or out of bed or trying to reach something behind you. I didn't need anything I could buy. I bought the socks and a slatted spoon I haven't used. Blue interrupted by the living points of constellated skin. I've been looking for a long time at the stretch of table where you had your hand. I am afraid to touch it. Love, all I've ever seen is things in airless dense configuration and no transparency.            Copyright © 2017 Margaret Ross. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "I was thinking how description is a funny form of touch, in some sense more lifelike than what a hand does. It tries to make something distant feel close, so even apparently impassive description contains a low-grade longing, like a pilot light." —Margaret Ross   Margaret Ross is the author of A Timeshare (Omnidawn Publishing, 2015). She teaches at Stanford University and lives in Berkeley, California. Poetry by Ross   A Timeshare (Omnidawn Publishing, 2015) "The Long Meadow" by Vijay Seshadri "No More Birds" by Ari Banias "Blue Vase" by Cynthia Zarin Help Support Poem-a-Day   If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a monthly donation or one-time gift to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! 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