St. Joseph Father of Whales
Rent from DeepDyve- St. Joseph Father of Whales
St. Josephfather of whalesspeak to usfrom the deepSt. JosephBaby father travelerclown suitnot fatherbut carterof watermelonsand cantaloupesand footballs &my fearfulagony; carterof my coyote joycarter of pearlylandscapesyour tattooedsoul is a teevee setacross which gallopkangaroos and java linas, dancingcigarettes, griefand me with a staffleading a legionof puppies [End Page 105] out of the desertwith your pictureon my staffbut it’s you as a dogin a baseballcap. I heard yourJoseph Josephysongs in the whales last nightgiant round giggly organstickling and mooingand diving calves, you’rethe oldest & the silliestJoe—need to keepyou on myside. Thanks to youI’m enormous and slipperythanks to you I’msleek. I breakthe bank breechy breechy in my thoughtfulwishes for the worldand wolves and growly leavesdancing behind holyrice shades, thanksto you JoeI can read theleaves and thesky & sing alongwith themin the endI have you to thankfor my transparencyhere I am gentlethumping heart & lungsat the bottom ofthe ocean; hereI am your visible whale [End Page 106] sun keep watchon my blubbersailing around andpast that maneyes me gentlythanks Joeof the desertJoe of the sky &of outer spacegleaming pluto &mars bigJupiter& the sea the surveyingman feels myreasonable guts &the gleaming chartof all my trips& the goodnessahead & he smileswith an infant’strust [End Page 107]
Eileen Myles is the author of nineteen books including I Must Be Living Twice: New & Selected Poems and a re-issue of Chelsea Girls, both out from Ecco/Harper Collins in 2015. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship in nonfiction, an Andy Warhol/Creative Capital art writers’ grant, three Lambda Book Awards, a Shelly Prize from The Poetry Society of America, and a poetry award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts; she was named to the Slate/Whiting Second Novel List, and in 2015 she received The Clark Prize for Excellence in Arts Writing. She is a Professor Emeritus at uc San Diego where she directed the writing program, and she now teaches at New York University and Naropa University. She lives in Marfa, Texas, and New York.
