Four Poems
Emmett Lewis
At Falling Waters in Saugerties, NY
falling awake
fallen
rocks ahead
dip
in the shoulder
low
shoulder
no shoulder to
mind the river
in the gap
in
the leaves
en-
circling
sunlight
reaches over
lime
green river growth
clouds reflected
a long a porous
amorphous edge
curving
shale shoreline
a triangle of reflection
black locust
cloud and sky
river growth
or water hyacinth
At Napatree Point in Westerly, RI
eelgrass
sea green
golden locks
of sea-
weed
pulled toward
the shoreline
glow in the
sun’s low
angle of incidence
piping plovers
on flittering
feet
the color
of dry sand
a sad whistle
pwee-doo
pwee-doo
in my palm
a pill-
shaped stone
with markings
that match
my cracked pink skin
Reading Anne Carson in Cannes
overtakelessness
or that which
cannot be got round
offshore wind energy
the undertaker
underwrote the unsaid
into an amphora
uninterred
and in this amphora
an anaphora of arrowheads
each arrowhead a name
no longer named
uncooked
or unable to stand
yet easily stacked
or embedded underfoot
in sand unearthed
bronze unsung
the unspeakable
is untried and
uncertain
un certain regard
until the ocean
undulates
undo
undo
and the turbines
unwind
Towards a Public Utility
After Tropical Storm Isaias
1.
i heard a crashing
and stepped out
on the porch
to find the yard
full of tree
full of green
blocking the street
from view
blocking all paths
the suburb jungled
overthrown
a downy woodpecker
dancing
on the downed branches
red oak
horizontal
magnolia bough
torn free
the power lines went down
and tangled in the trees
the top third of telephone pole
snapped off in the street
and i talked to the neighbors
for the first time
2.
seven thousand live volts
lay drooping down the block
for seven days or more
before Con Edison
made an appearance
Con Edison claims
to be prepared
for climate change
but what incentive
does a monopoly have
as we sat in the quiet
a second tree fell
sparking a transistor
smashing a Jeep
we heard a buzzing
we tiptoed
over live wire
under dangling limbs
and the smell
of fresh oak
Emmett Lewis is an MFA candidate in poetry at Columbia University. His work has recently appeared in Hamilton Stone Review and he reviews poetry submissions for the Columbia Journal. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.