"Prophecy of a Monday" by Chad Sweeney

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend Support Poem-a-Day November 18, 2019   Prophecy of a Monday   Chad Sweeney

if the cotton crop fails if the wheat crop fails   if Oklahomans wander forever among the back lots of Hollywood   if the potato crops fail if the corn crops fail   if the sun corrodes a copper mirror our faces afloat   above a crib in Guadalajara where the ceiling fan rends our voices   and the secret lives of aloe roots  confess to a window in feathers of ice   then the bluebells yawning up in ruts of mining roads will measure the border wall   in the serene apotheosis of their sepals   and one drop of my blood   will freeze in the eye of an old fox, and one drop   from your eye thaw to feed the iris bulbs   three beads from our lungs inhaled by a prisoner   in the electric chair a queen in a fairy tale a farmer   planting mines east of her field if the gears of the clouds say yes   if ants flow up and down the funnels of evolution   then time will prism into its possibles and you'll end up in a bar   in Alabama a cherry in your mouth watching a hotel key   float toward you or you'll wake in a labyrinth   called Monday                called Your Life called The Things You Prayed For   and your intricate decisions will lead you out and deeper in   your mirrors dissolving in ghost water   and your indecisions will go on subtracting numbers from the garden   and building houses in the air            Copyright © 2019 by Chad Sweeney. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 18, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets. About this Poem   "Time has been my lifelong obsession. To explore time and interconnectedness in a new way, I am writing a book in the future tense, a book of prophecies in one extended sentence, entitled 'The Futures,' which reimagines time and causality for the age of quantum physics. Rather than a linear destiny, these prophecies trace the future(s) as flowerings of accident and intersectionality, lived histories of the sacred mundane where individuals and their choices are swept up into larger patterns—war, poverty, the urgent flight of refugees from Syria, Yemen, Mexico, and Central America—with echoes of past exigencies such as the Oklahoma Dustbowl and the Irish Potato Famine." —Chad Sweeney   Chad Sweeney's most recent book of poetry is Little Million Doors (Nightboat Books, 2019). He is an associate professor of creative writing at California State University, San Bernardino. Poetry by Sweeney   Little Million Doors (Nightboat Books, 2019) "Poem with Lines from Pierre Reverdy" by Sandra Simonds "I come from the fire city." by Eve L. Ewing "What the Last Evening Will Be Like" by Edward Hirsch November Guest Editor: Sherwin Bitsui   Thanks to Sherwin Bitsui, author of Dissolve (Copper Canyon Press, 2018), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read a Q&A with Bitsui about his curatorial approach this month and find out more about our guest editors for the year. A culture break, a source of daily renewal...   If reading Poem-a-Day has become a meaningful part of your day, please consider supporting this free series with a donation. Your gift makes publishing Poem-a-Day possible. 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   Unsubscribe here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038

From Our Sponsors