Ramble

How the stomach, starved,
spits out food--

ballooned--is how
I love you. Too

much. And all
over Africa the locusts

move in, un-
invited, and eat

up everythang.
Dear, I needs

a benefit
concert! Some star

stud affair. Send
food soon--

this regime
must end. Child,

I have left only
skin--an old

unstirred soup's--

Copyright © 2001 by Kevin Young.

Kevin Young is Ruth Lilly Professor of Poetry at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is the author of To Repel Ghosts (2001) and Most Way Home (1995), selected by Lucille Clifton as part of the National Poetry Series and winner of the John C. Zacharis First Book Prize from Ploughshares.

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