Representative Character by Brett Fletcher Lauer

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend April 29, 2014   Representative Character   Brett Fletcher Lauer

I cut the orange in two   and the two parties are not equal. I watch   the driveway, study irregularities in market   fluctuation, the bird humming at the feeder.   It’s colder than yesterday. Very dark. I’ve been here   now two years and haven’t received a letter.      One hour of sleep before midnight is worth     three in August. Do you know what I mean?   Women in particular responded once to my    advances. I’ve been researching Buddhism   on my phone for twenty minutes. They say one   thing exists in every hidden thing. Soon I will     replace myself with the sound of a prayer   bell application. Cigarettes drag time. I get news   alerts: first the harbinger of the storm, followed   by an icon of the sun covered in raindrops,   then nothing to look forward to. Another   coffee without milk. There’s no hurry.   In a few hours a sprinkler system automatically   operates. Someday somewhere I believe   someone will depend on my presence   at a recital or, more likely, their ride home. I wish   there were more time to go back to school,   read the classics, clean the pool. The doctor will   arrive soon to walk me around the bend up in   the road, pause at colonial gravesites. I could care.   Gradually these fields broaden, brown, and we walk back.              Copyright © 2014 by Brett Fletcher Lauer. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “The narrator here is a little bored and lonely and at least two-thirds along the way towards the end of his rope, which perhaps raises the question: What will happen when he arrives at the end? Either he wishes for someone or something off in the distance to respond to his pleading tugs, signaling he is ready to be pulled back to safety and comfort, or else he contemplates new uses for the rope, like tying one end to an anchor and throwing it overboard into the river.” —Brett Fletcher Lauer   Brett Fletcher Lauer is the author of A Hotel in Belgium (Four Way Books, 2014). He is the editor of several anthologies, including Please Excuse This Poem (Viking Penguin, 2015), which he coedited with Lynn Melnick. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Most Recent Book by Lauer   A Hotel in Belgium (Four Way Books, 2014) "79" by Joachim du Bellay "Boston" by Aaron Smith "On the Terrace" by Landis Everson 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