Lyric Poses, 2017.
“East and West”
Where does the East end
And the West begin?
Is there a marker there?
(Presumably in the ocean.)
Like a city-welcome sign, reading West.
Population: Jesus Christ,
John Keynes, and George Washington
And on the other side
East. Population: Mao Zedong,
Leon Trotsky, and Krishna the Destroyer
With a small note attached
beneath saying
See reverse
for further details
Or instead of all that
A long dividing line
Like a piece of tape
Stretched across a bedroom floor
Only the bedroom floor is
The ocean floor
And the quarrelsome
Roommates (Picture them
Arguing at the dividing line
of neighboring spaces)
are Mohammed and St. Paul
Or maybe where east and west
Meet each other is marked by
A buoy floating in the water
With a friendly greeter clinging on
Who knows one-hundred-twenty-seven languages
Calling out to whoever passes
In each tongue he possesses
Quicker than an auctioneer
Welcome West! Say Goodday East
Or if the passer-bys are opposite then
Say Goodnight West! Welcome East
I hope that’s the case,
And not the alternative:
Tourist infested waters
Surrounded by cruise ships filled with picture-gawkers
Who stand at hollow railings
And stare down into the water
Hoping to glimpse a sign, a greeter, a
Piece of stretch tape floating by
Anything
But they can only see
Their own bovine shadows
Rippling across the surface
Of the blue immensity beneath them
Lyric Poses is a short collection of six poems centered around the “stances” or personas a writer assumes in the process of composition. The poems are incisive, sassy, and irreverent. Each assumes a different tone and style to convey a range of moods. They blend the personal and the political to comment on the gap between poetry and the world.
Patrick is a poet and writer who is interested in a wide variety of modern arts and literature. He graduated as an English Major in spring 2018.