Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, NO NEWS HERE, by BETH GYLYS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

NO NEWS HERE, by                    
First Line: I'm covered in cat hair, my arms
Subject(s): Despair


I'm covered in cat hair, my arms,
my shoulders, and everybody knows
how I loved you, your head, your body,

your ringed finger. I thought
she was a friend. I told her, keep, don't,
this is mine: story, man, love, secret.

The thin gray lines on a page blur. I hear
she was drinking one night and said,
and now it's everywhere. But who am I

to be news-diet trends, a boy birthed
as half an orangutan, we can prevent
heart attacks by sucking on daisy petals--

and I am not news. My heart, torn,
might be pasted in a book, just like
everyone's. We're all broken

lovers, or we're sleepwalking.
What story do they hope to hear:
our bodies entwined on the bed,

then the slats bending through,
the mattress lurching awkwardly
to the floor? This is the way

the stars shift. This is the way headlights
burst into brightness, and this is the way I
get through my days: not very well.

First published in The Kenyon Review, Volume 22 #1 (Winter 2000).
www.kenyonreview.org/roth







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