Rae Armantrout’s most recent collection of poems is Finalists. Her 2009 book, Versed, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
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Rae Armantrout’s most recent collection of poems is Finalists. Her 2009 book, Versed, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
There are worldwide, catastrophic storms
When earth’s network
Of weather-control satellites
Is sabotaged by unknown enemies.
This eucalyptus,
with its elliptical leaves
dangling, light and dry
as an abandoned chrysalis,
with its modest bunches
of pale pink flowers
and languid pose,
is my unattainable ideal.
I want to get
to the managed care
evening,
where the future appears
to stream directly
into the past . . .
Take this cup away from me
with its hints
of ammonia and dill,
oak or corrosion.
Who knows, really?
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For National Poetry Month, sign up for our newsletter and get a digital copy of our out-of-print chapbook Poems for Political Disaster.