Today Is Close to
Today
by George Kalamaras
In those days everything was more beautiful than everything else.
We lived like souls soiling themselves into bodies.
I once wished my name contained nothing but verbs.
Yes, I was young, but no, I could keep still.
If you poison me shy, my cluttered ease might salmon-spawn a flexible sacrifice.
We defy the full moon like we might the seal skin of a cricket.
You may conduct in my mouth any experiment you wish regarding deep sleep.
I am perfectly content masticating indirect objects into prepositions.
Of. Beyond. For. After. During which.
I seem to always start by ending and close by some opening mouth.
Sure, those days—long ago, now—almost seem like the old days.
Today seems very close to today.
Bio: George Kalamaras, Poet Laureate of Indiana, is the author of seven books of poetry and seven chapbooks, including Kingdom of Throat-Stuck Luck, winner of the Elixir Press Poetry Prize (2011). He is Professor of English at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, where he has taught since 1990.
by George Kalamaras
In those days everything was more beautiful than everything else.
We lived like souls soiling themselves into bodies.
I once wished my name contained nothing but verbs.
Yes, I was young, but no, I could keep still.
If you poison me shy, my cluttered ease might salmon-spawn a flexible sacrifice.
We defy the full moon like we might the seal skin of a cricket.
You may conduct in my mouth any experiment you wish regarding deep sleep.
I am perfectly content masticating indirect objects into prepositions.
Of. Beyond. For. After. During which.
I seem to always start by ending and close by some opening mouth.
Sure, those days—long ago, now—almost seem like the old days.
Today seems very close to today.
Bio: George Kalamaras, Poet Laureate of Indiana, is the author of seven books of poetry and seven chapbooks, including Kingdom of Throat-Stuck Luck, winner of the Elixir Press Poetry Prize (2011). He is Professor of English at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, where he has taught since 1990.