Lenas
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Lenas
1
sweep as though a dirt yardin the morning patternthe discovering bristles at lastsend a note to patience
the bottle tree's reading glasssees watch my fingersmake the air glory around herhead mis-shapened
mistaken for a combinto the past straightening ringsout the rows realign the aureolegreased into sweetened serpents
your mama wear
2
someone is snappingthe claves like string peas—the fiber cord plucked offsmoothers the tie of the taste song
into the pot's liquor—fixing for cooking the porch crowd isa juke joint of field songold ladies fit to draw the poh-lice [End Page 777]
feeding food the storiessay didn't hear it from them—relenting vehiclesstopped at the one light in town
where the crossing sings where was yo' mind where
3
seats at the crossroad haveno vote only silence asaudience reaction a goatsacrifice value. and no gods.
acting changes when it costslives the gods don't play.they have their own boardsthey move their asses around on
the weather (wch isdying) an'they their own goatshould have seen it coming from
they inside. [End Page 778]
Ed Roberson is Distinguished Artist in Residence at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He is author of eight books of poetry: The New Wing of the Labyrinth (Singing Horse Press, 2009), City Eclogue (Atelos, 2006), Atmosphere Conditions (Sun & Moon Press, 2000; winner of the 2000 National Poetry Award), Just In / Word of Navigational Challenges: New and Selected Poems (Talisman House, 1998), Voices Cast Out to Talk Us In (University of Iowa Press, 1995; winner of the 1994 Iowa Poetry Prize), Lucid Interval as Integral Music (University of Iowa Press, 1995; winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize), Etai-Eken (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1975), and When Thy King Is a Boy (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1970). In 2008, he received the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America.
