About the Dead: Poems

Contents

C O n T e n T S Foreword by Garrison Keillor ix Decampment 1 one Country of Forgotten Language inside the Skull 9 Crossing the Gap 11 Peregrination 12 red roof inn 13 Alice 15 i’m explaining a Few Things 16 Still-life Minus Fruit 17 The Dead Cause 18 henry’s Blues 20 Passport 21 Preparing the Table 22 At Church 23 Outside Pinckneyville 24 Wheat Field with Crows 25 two About the Dead Creating the Garden 29 The Second Coming of Christ in the Form of a north American Alligator 30 Today, houdini is Buried 31 Funhouse of Mirth 32 Box 33 American Song 34 variations on a Political Theme 35 An Apology 36 Saxifrage 37 Barber 38 Form 39 For years 40 Surgery 41 reminiscing Skyros 43 happens Slowly 44 About the Dead 45 [viii] three As Broken in the End My Brother’s house 49 it’s no Secret 50 Float Trip 51 Getting Arrested 53 Too Many hillsides for the Dead 54 Glass of Water 55 news of Surgery 57 O Captain! My Captain! 58 Open Mic 59 Trivial Pursuit 60 Questions of heaven and hell on Sunset Blvd 61 rick and the hooker 62 i watched her going into a gas station, 63 As Broken in the end 64 yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion 65 Only Then 66 Acknowledgments 68 About the Author 70 The May Swenson Poetry Award 71 ...