they are so close they
are a body and its ghost
blossom and its branch
her own arcing over his
prone her owning
him nothing and every
she holds him in the hot
grip of legs he gives
into sweet imperial
riding she widening
curtains of his shirt to
nest in a theater of fur
around them the voices
buried in wires listen
though elsewhere people
tweeze bullet shells
and gloves finger the ash
of neighbors after still
another massacre and though
reporters note the absence
of outrage of Afghanis
to the latest outrage
and the war’s locked in
so many closets and bodies
OUR COUNTRY
OUR COUNTRY
AND NOTHING BUT
tangle the tango
lying to rise as dark
falls and cherry blooms
text their wireless perfume
to the account of air
in the middle of this dying
empire the cars careen
around this traffic island
of prone skin
her mouth opens
his mouth they are
tasting what it means
the sweet amnesia
stygian happiness
to be alive even as we
wring our hands and talk
war and torture to death
poor Daniel Webster
standing above them
pedestal upon pedestal
upon pedestal his immortal
bronze thrusting up
and up and no one
to tender or soften him
LIBERTY AND UNION
NOW AND FOREVER
ONE AND INSEPARABLE
Philip Metres
Philip Metres is the author of ten books, including Shrapnel Maps (forthcoming 2020), The Sound of Listening (essays, 2018), Sand Opera (poems, 2015), Pictures at an Exhibition (poems, 2016), I Burned at the Feast: Selected Poems of Arseny Tarkovsky (translations 2015), and others. His work has garnered a Lannan fellowship, two NEAs, six Ohio Arts Council Grants, the Hunt Prize, the Beatrice Hawley Award, two Arab American Book Awards and others. He is professor of English and director of the Peace, Justice, and Human Rights program at John Carroll University.
