Negotiations by Rae Armantrout

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend April 3, 2015   Negotiations   Rae Armantrout

1   The best part is when we’re tired of it all in the same degree,   a fatigue we imagine to be temporary, and we lie near each other, toes touching.   What’s done is done, we don’t say, to begin our transaction,   each letting go of something without really bringing it to mind   until we’re lighter, sicker, older   and a current runs between us where our toes touch.   It feels unconditional.       2   Remember this, we don’t say:   The Little Mermaid was able to absorb her tail,   refashion it to form legs.   This meant that everything’s negotiable   and that everything is played out in advance   in secret.            © 2015 Rae Armantrout. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “Like all my poems, ‘Negotiations’ has several sources. It deals with aging lovers and the often silent deals they make. Thinking about bargains made me think of The Little Mermaid and that made me remember something I had just read about the incredibly complex process by which tadpoles (actual little mermaids) are somehow able to reabsorb their tails and fashion their future frog legs.” —Rae Armantrout   Rae Armantrout is the author of Itself (Wesleyan University Press, 2015). She has recently retired from the University of California, San Diego, and is freelance teaching while still living mainly in San Diego.   Photo credit: Rosanne Olson Most Recent Book by Armantrout   Itself (Wesleyan University Press, 2015) "Marriage: A Daybook" by Nicole Cooley "Credo" by Matthew Rohrer "We Manage Most When We Manage Small" by Linda Gregg Read This Poem   For National Poetry Month, we’ve teamed up with 826 National to produce Read This Poem, a celebration of poets in cities with 826 chapters. Read this week’s featured poems by poets from Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. 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