1 post tagged “franz wright”
Woods Hole Ferry
Crossing briefly this mirrory still Galilean blue water to the heaven
of the affluent, the users-up, unconsciously remote
from knowing themselves
our owners and starvers, occupying
as they always have, to no purpose
the mansions and the beauty of the earth
for this short while
before
we all meet and enter at the same door.
Franz Wright (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
Reprinted with permission God's Silence
The American Claimant
In prosperity we are popular, popularity comes easy in that case,
but when the other thing comes our friends are pretty likely to
turn against us.
Mark Twain, 1892, ch 12
It Isn't Poverty
and yet it is.
Stairwells that are urinals,
the sweet-sour stench of gin and vomit,
failure smells like these.
Sirens and screams,
a sick child's whine,
these are the songs of failure,
its voice.
Failure feels like dampness,
the fog that swirls through deserted train yards,
the dankness of dim alleys.
I've tasted it. The iron and lead of blood
and fear. It is mold and mildew in the mouth
and rancid grease, and it won't spit out.
Failure lives alone. It pulls the shades
and walks through dusty rooms, trailing rags,
avoiding mirrors. There is no phone.
Sue Scalf
Reprinted with permission from Ceremony of Names,
