Adam Strauss


[In the millionth year of their marriage]

In the millionth year of their marriage
Many things went righter.

A water-strider goes
Across the

Pond perfectly
Garnishing the scene:

California Live-Oaks,
Three acacias;

Sundown strikes
The film of water on the flagstones magenta.


[Surges                sweep me or my                          opposite]

Surges                                         sweep me or my                               opposite
Off the promontory in                     to a school of sardines;
If I weren’t nearly drowning                     I’d admire this jardines
Of bull-kelp was           anchoring a gray           whale until it continued its split

To northern waters; now           while soldiers kill it           gulps krill; my drift
Teaches me to not           mend this           rift. I grab at sea-beans:
This doesn’t make                     me feel at home; fast as far as eventually goes a man leans
Out from an algae-greened graffiti-loud rock to                     lift

Me out. Salt throated and freezing I flit           from succulent
To succulent           thanking God. I’m fortunate this                     break
Isn’t pumping gnarly           swells this moment though then there’d have been

Surfers or a better                     chance of being rescued. I haven’t meant
To ignore that man: let’s return to him           here           about to make
The makings of dinner materialize; once home he hangs his pants           drip a hin.


[The albumen was a far]

The albumen was a far
Cry from numinous;

Someone’s always
Expecting hellacious

Hatchlings; someone
(Perhaps the same

Perhaps not) will feed them;
Like you-two tonight

They too will exchange
Flowers for a dance.



Adam Strauss has work in Word For/Word 11, and poems forthcoming in 1913: a journal of forms, Moria and the Colorado Review. These poems come from a manuscript titled For Days; it's, in part, a meditation on the word hell.

 
 
 
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