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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE HIGHWAY DEATH TOLL, by KAREN SWENSON Poet's Biography First Line: The highway's edge / of unmalicious deaths Last Line: If I'd turned it off before I might have heard. Subject(s): Death; Driving & Drivers; Fathers; Popes; Dead, The; Papacy | |||
The highway's edge of unmalicious deaths plays counterpoint against the radio's theme. In Utah and Nevada, rabbits' white fur sloughs off the pavement like the nap of cheap velvet while I am told Bob Marley's head is pillowed by his dreadlocks' tightly harrowed rows. Great white pillars of plain bereft of roof - the columns of grain elevators shade an owl which, blood glued to the pavement, waves one wing to passing cars containing the report, indifferent as the trapped fly's buzzing voice, that the Pope's been shot while blessing multitudes. I did not take personally the legs of a Pennsylvania deer that, stiff as fence posts, staked out the belly pregnant with death's gases until, my radio off and parked in Brooklyn, a neighbor leaned into the car to announce my father's death, and I thought perhaps if I'd turned it off before I might have heard. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CATHERINE TO GREGORY, THE POPE by MARY KATE BLAND CHRISTMAS GIFTS by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING ASOLANDO: THE POPE AND THE NET by ROBERT BROWNING THE BOY AND THE ANGEL by ROBERT BROWNING THE RING AND THE BOOK: BOOK 10. THE POPE by ROBERT BROWNING THE RING AND THE BOOK: BOOK 10. THE POPE by ROBERT BROWNING A DIALOGUE ABOUT COMPELLING A PERSON TO TAKE OATHS TO THE GOVERNMENT by JOHN BYROM ON THE PATRON OF ENGLAND by JOHN BYROM |
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