Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WAR SUITE: 2, by JAMES HARRISON


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WAR SUITE: 2, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I sing sixty-seven wars, the war now
Last Line: He wishes suddenly to be stronger than a car.
Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim
Subject(s): Death; Fairy Tales; Ice; Dead, The


I sing sixty-seven wars; the war now,
the war for Rapunzel, earth cannot use
her hair, the war of drowning hair
drifting upward as it descends,
the lover holding his cock like
a switchblade, war of
apples and pears beating against the earth,
earth tearing a hole in sky, air to hold
the light it has gathered, river bending
until its back is broken, death a black
carp to swim in our innards.

̺ ̺ ̺

Grand wars; the final auk poised
on her ice floe, the wolf shot
from a helicopter; that shrill god
in her choir loft among damp wine-colored
crumpled robes, face against a dusty
window, staring out at a black pond
and the floor of a woodlot
covered with ferns -- if that wasp
on the pane stings her...
cancer to kill child, child to kill cancer,
nail to enter the wood, the Virgin
to flutter in the air above Rome like a Piper Cub,
giraffe's neck to grow after greener leaves,
bullet to enter an eye, bullet
to escape the skull, bullet to fall
to earth, eye to look for its skull,
skull to burst, belly to find its cage or ribs.

̺ ̺ ̺

Face down in the pool, his great fatty
heart wants to keep beating; tongue pressed
to rug in a chemical hallway; on a country
road, caught by flashbulb headlights,
he wishes suddenly to be stronger than a car.





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