THIS DUSK IN A MOUTH FULL OF PRAYER
Michael Wasson When you came into my mouth opened wide enough to forget how to swallow light: this surrendering the body is my skin tracing starved beauty in climax: us lying in the dark shadow of another lord: give me your dying words like father or my tongue disappearing before you: welík’ipckse so tell me this when you’ve forgotten how to open your lips into my name -- father: which is another way to say shadow: failed daylight you say: the sky touching the body: I find myself entering a night again wounded enough for the snow-- shined with moon — to reorder the stars with our faces: broken through with so many American mouths: like ghosts singing the very last bright word they remember: amen. |
I write about this fantastic poem (and compare it to the super erotic opening lines of a Louise Erdrich poem) in a collaborative interview CMarie Fuhrman and I did with Arthur Kayzakian for Poetry International
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