Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BRAND NEW STATUE OF LIBERTY; TO LEE IACOCCA (ANOTHER MICHIGAN BOY), by JAMES HARRISON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BRAND NEW STATUE OF LIBERTY; TO LEE IACOCCA (ANOTHER MICHIGAN BOY), by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I was commissioned in a dream by imanja
Last Line: So that she'll drop the torch to fondle the jewels.
Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim
Subject(s): Dreams; Statue Of Liberty; Nightmares


I was commissioned in a dream by Imanja,
also the Black Pope of Brazil, Tancred,
to design a seven-tiered necklace
of seven thousand skulls for the Statue of Liberty.
Of course from a distance they'll look
like pearls, but in November
when the strongest winds blow, the skulls
will rattle wildly, bone against metal,
a crack and chatter of bone against metal,
the true sound of history, this metal striking bone.
I'm not going to get heavy-handed --
a job is a job and I've leased a football
field for the summer, gathered a group of ladies
who are art lovers, leased in advance
a bull Sikorsky freight helicopter
to drop on the necklace: funding comes
from Ford Foundation, Rockefeller, the NEA.
There is one Jewish skull from Atlanta, two
from Mississippi, but this is basically
an indigenous cast except skulls from tribes
of blacks who got a free ride over from Africa,
representative skulls from all the Indian
tribes, an assortment of grizzly, wolf,
coyote and buffalo skulls. But what beauty
when the morning summer sun glances
off these bony pates! And her great
iron lips quivering in a smile, almost a smirk
so that she'll drop the torch to fondle the jewels.





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