"I wake between tectonic plates that hurt. / I have five faults, called senses."
— Galvin, James (b. May 8, 1951)
Place of Publication
Port Townsend, WA
Publisher
Copper Canyon Press
Date
2016
Metaphor
"I wake between tectonic plates that hurt. / I have five faults, called senses."
Metaphor in Context
My feet stick out from beneath the sheet,
Pointing to where death thrives.
I am right side up.
I wake between tectonic plates that hurt.
I have five faults, called senses.
My brow is furrowed into alps.
My best volcano thinks
It's high geologic time
To euthanize the sky.
Excuse me while I euthanize the sky.
My fjords ache.
My glaciers hurry.
My spine is a train wreck in a tunnel.
No one survives.
There is a bridge to nowhere, and it's mine.
I count on being left alone.
I love the Abel Tasman Sea.
I can't remember my discovery.
Pointing to where death thrives.
I am right side up.
I wake between tectonic plates that hurt.
I have five faults, called senses.
My brow is furrowed into alps.
My best volcano thinks
It's high geologic time
To euthanize the sky.
Excuse me while I euthanize the sky.
My fjords ache.
My glaciers hurry.
My spine is a train wreck in a tunnel.
No one survives.
There is a bridge to nowhere, and it's mine.
I count on being left alone.
I love the Abel Tasman Sea.
I can't remember my discovery.
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Reading "Why I Am Like New Zealand," selected by Matthew Zapruder for The New York Times Magazine (December 30, 2016). <Link to NYTimes.com>
Poem collected in Everything We Always Knew Was True (Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2016).
Poem collected in Everything We Always Knew Was True (Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2016).
Date of Entry
01/04/2017
