fromSEAHORSES ARE AWESOME
5.
IT WILL SEEM LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED
a few more polkas disappeared
into the evening air
a deep breath inhaled the universe
and let it out again
when late May gets into
everything and everyone
feels a significant part
of what they have done
is dream – it will seem
like nothing happened
when the sky is blue
and indistinct, it will seem
like boating down a river
of flowers in an ensorcelled
city where everyone is veiled
it will seem like money will be
stripped of its crown
but that is the dream
that can’t carry the day
7.
WE DIDN’T MAKE THIS RULE
UP the general took the
president into the sun room
and pointed an enormous rocket
at his head and that’s
how we got this rule
power and privilege always win
the argument it has set up
because the argument is
always about power and privilege
and the world always works
that way things go relatively
smoothly but it’s the other
arguments it can’t win that
make it even more
jealous and insecure it doesn’t
know how to do anything
but make up more rules
I can’t give you specifics
right now my neighbor just
walked past, I’m off to
follow her into the sea
9.
THIS IS MY CHALLENGE TO YOU,
she said, laying a severely
wounded crab on the table
between us. And walked away.
And slammed the door. And
turned on the car. And
drove away. The situation
was hopeless, and I was
nothing, I was just one
blade of grass on the prairie.
If she really thought I could
put our crab back together
she would have stayed to
watch. She would have
leaned over me while I
worked, her hands
on my chair. She would
have turned on a little music.
Instead I have to choose
the music. A plane flies
overhead. I know it’s her.
At night the moon makes
a little sound.
Matthew Rohrer is the author of several books of poetry, most recently SURROUNDED BY FRIENDS, published by Wave Books. He lives in Brooklyn and teaches at NYU.
