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Poetry

January Garden

 

Woke up with:                 the minute I let “I love you” touch me, trees 
		                                   sprouted from my hair—

Woke up with:		      Zeus fatigue—                 (what ails the nation)

Woke up with:		      the soul a balm, a lozenge, yet another
                                                   pill-shaped thing—

Woke up and 		      recalled nothing—	   took a walk in winter air—

                                      in the January garden. No one
                                                  on benches—

                                      And then remembered—with a bolt—how I’d been
                                                  titling a poem in my sleep:

                                                  A Little Less, Day After Day, Bomb After Bomb

                                      And just as I remembered, I passed a young woman
                                                  at a picnic table, writing in a journal—

                                      And she held—so help me!—a pen shaped 
                                                   like a bone—

                                      And then I heard the poem:

                                                  Each of us, by nature, a killer—

                                                  Each of us, by nature,
                                                              picking something to practice 

                                                              mercy on—


Dana Levin was born in Los Angeles in 1965 and grew up in the Mojave Desert. She is the author of four books of poetry, most recently "Banana Palace" (Copper Canyon Press) and "Sky Burial" (Copper Canyon Press), which "The New Yorker" called “utterly her own and utterly riveting.” Levin is a recipient of many fellowships and awards, including from the NEA and the Library of Congress, as well as the Rona Jaffe, Whiting, and Guggenheim Foundations. She serves as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Maryville University in St. Louis. Copper Canyon Press will publish her fifth book in 2022.

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