This Too Shall Pass
was no consolation to the woman
whose husband was strung out on opiods.
Gone to a better place: useless and suspect intel
for the couple at their daughter’s funeral
though there are better places to be
than a freezing church in February, standing
before a casket with a princess motif.
Some moments can’t be eased
and it’s no good offering clichés like stale
meat to a tiger with a taste for human suffering.
When I hear the word miracle I want to throw up
on a platter of deviled eggs. Everything happens
for a reason: more good tidings someone will try
to trepan your skull to insert. When fire
inhales your house, you don’t care what the haiku says
about seeing the rising moon. You want
an avalanche to bury you. You want to lie down
under a slab of snow, dumb as a jarred
sideshow embryo. What a circus.
The tents dismantled, the train moving on,
always moving, starting slow and gaining speed,
taking you where you never wanted to go.
■
was no consolation to the woman
whose husband was strung out on opiods.
Gone to a better place: useless and suspect intel
for the couple at their daughter’s funeral
though there are better places to be
than a freezing church in February, standing
before a casket with a princess motif.
Some moments can’t be eased
and it’s no good offering clichés like stale
meat to a tiger with a taste for human suffering.
When I hear the word miracle I want to throw up
on a platter of deviled eggs. Everything happens
for a reason: more good tidings someone will try
to trepan your skull to insert. When fire
inhales your house, you don’t care what the haiku says
about seeing the rising moon. You want
an avalanche to bury you. You want to lie down
under a slab of snow, dumb as a jarred
sideshow embryo. What a circus.
The tents dismantled, the train moving on,
always moving, starting slow and gaining speed,
taking you where you never wanted to go.
■
Hello Friends,
Sometimes the title of a poem acts as the first line, as in today’s selection by poet Kim Addonizio, originally published as part of the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day on March 12, 2024. There is a reference in this poem to a famous haiku by Mizuta Masahide, which you can read here.
Kim Addonizio was also previously featured for Poem-A-Day April 25, 2024 (“To the Woman Crying Uncontrollably in the Next Stall”).
Thank you for celebrating poetry month with me!
— Ællen
Sometimes the title of a poem acts as the first line, as in today’s selection by poet Kim Addonizio, originally published as part of the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day on March 12, 2024. There is a reference in this poem to a famous haiku by Mizuta Masahide, which you can read here.
Kim Addonizio was also previously featured for Poem-A-Day April 25, 2024 (“To the Woman Crying Uncontrollably in the Next Stall”).
Thank you for celebrating poetry month with me!
— Ællen