Shadow Ball: New and Selected Poems

Contents

Contents from Reading the Water 1997 The Mummy Meets Hot-Headed Naked Ice-Borers 3 The Death of Santa Claus 5 Prayer for the Man Who Mugged My Father, 72 7 Spiders 9 The Crane Boy 11 One Story 13 In Praise of Pliny 15 Umbrellas 17 Broken Toe 19 Peaches 21 Invocation to Allen as the Muse Euterpe 23 The Shape of History 26 from Liver 1999 Wedding Dress 29 Over the Town 31 Biblical Also-Rans 33 Musk Turtle 35 Tone of Voice 37 Tenderness in Men 38 Prozac 39 Byron, Keats, and Shelley 40 Someone Else‘s Good News 42 Losing My Hair 44 Love Poetry 46 Descent 48 from Tulip Farms and Leper Colonies 2001 Did That Really Happen? 51 To Prove that We Existed Before You Were Born, 53 Charles Harper Webb 55 Vikings 57 A Salesman and a Librarian 59 Death Comes to the Baby Boom 60 Waking at 3 A.M. 62 Cocksucker 64 Waiting 66 Socks 67 To Make My Countrymen Love Poetry 68 from Hot Popsicles 2005 Consciousness 73 Rat Defeated in a Landslide 75 To Set Himself Off from the Crowd, 76 Conan the Barbarian 77 A Ticklish Situation 78 Judge Frosty Presiding 79 Imp of the Verbose 80 Hot Popsicles 82 Superman, Old 83 Making Things Right 85 from Amplified Dog 2006 Amplified Dog 89 Ooh My Soul 91 My Wife Insists That, On Our First Date, I Told Her I Had Seven Kinds of Hair 93 The New World Book of Webbs 94 Pumpkin Envy 96 Cat Possessed by Poet Keats 97 viii Prayer to Tear the Sperm-Dam Down 99 The Animals Are Leaving 102 A Meal Not Eaten 103 A Grand Opening of Hearts 105 The Open-Air Recital Survived a Shaky Start 107 How to Live 109 New Poems Shadow Ball 113 Comebacks 115 Blues 117 Sneaker Males 119 Goddess 121 Feeders 123 “Ghost of a Chance“ 125 Big 127 Kidnapper-Couple Who Forgot to Leave a Ransom Note Sentenced to 14 Years 129 Teachers’ Names 131 We‘ve Got Rhythm 133 I Have Much Better Poems than This 135 He Won’t Go to Sleep Without Me, 137 Flashlight 139 ix ...