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I sometimes find him in the attic, lying on his side, contemplating the insulation. Or just staring at the beams, trying to get the measure of force and distribution. He turns up a lot in the garage. I know he loves me. But if I look away for an instant, he's off, and I worry that he won't come back (or when he does he'll have no taste, gone in for some fad I'll have to bear, and every move he makes a test). But usually he's charming, following me to the cafe and lying on the awning so carefully as not to make it sag, only casting a slight shadow on my table. Of course I act as though I haven't seen a thing. He only wants, I think, to do what can't be done. Why just yesterday, for instance, I found him going through the public trash, figuring how to fill a bottle some angry drunk had smashed.

Take up the blood from the grass, sun. Take it up. These people do not thirst for it. Take up the insect children that play in the grass, sun. Take them away. These people are sick of them. Take down the long slender reeds, sun. Cut them down. These people cannot make flutes any longer. Now sun, come closer to the earth! Even closer than that. Closer. Now, sun. Take away the shape from the metal, sun. They are like stone, these people. Now make them lava.

First there was the earth in my mouth. It was there like a running stream, the July fever sweating the delirium of August, and the green buckling under the sun. The taste of sick dust ran in the currents of saliva which I heaved up and tried to picture when all the people would curse their own stinking guts and die. No. I am not wishing that everyone should die. Nor am I wishing that everyone should be still. Only I am squeezing out the steam in me.

lay sixteen bales down in front on the plank let me set and bay at the houndog moon lay sixteen bales down of the cotton flank pray with me brothers that the pink boss dont sweat me too soon beat my leg in a round nigger peg lord have mercy on my black pole lay sixteen bales in the even row let me sweat and cuss my roustabout tune lord have mercy on my shrinkin back let me go with the jesus mule lay sixteen bales for the warp and loom beat a nigger down and bury his soul boss dont sweat me too soon pray with me brothers that I hold my cool lord have mercy on this long black leg let me ride on the jesus mule lay sixteen bales of white fuzz down lay sixteen tales of how I got around lord have mercy on this sweat and stink lord have mercy lay sixteen bales pray brothers beat down lord have let me lord lord brothers the houndog moon howl jesus, howl!

The town is old and very steep A place of bells and cloisters and grey towers, And black-clad people walking in their sleep— A nun, a priest, a woman taking flowers To her new grave; and watched from end to end By the great Church above, through the still hours: But in the morning and the early dark The children wake to dart from doors and call Down the wide, crooked street, where, at the bend, Before it climbs up to the park, Ken’s is in the gabled house facing the Castle wall. When first I came upon him there Suddenly, on the half-lit stair, I think I hardly found a trace Of likeness to a human face In his. And I said then If in His image God made men, Some other must have made poor Ken— But for his eyes which looked at you As two red, wounded stars might do. He scarcely spoke, you scarcely heard, His voice broke off in little jars To tears sometimes. An uncouth bird He seemed as he ploughed up the street, Groping, with knarred, high-lifted feet And arms thrust out as if to beat Always against a threat of bars. And oftener than not there’d be A child just higher than his knee Trotting beside him. Through his dim Long twilight this, at least, shone clear, That all the children and the deer, Whom every day he went to see Out in the park, belonged to him. “God help the folk that next him sits He fidgets so, with his poor wits,” The neighbours said on Sunday nights When he would go to Church to “see the lights!” Although for these he used to fix His eyes upon a crucifix In a dark corner, staring on Till everybody else had gone. And sometimes, in his evil fits, You could not move him from his chair— You did not look at him as he sat there, Biting his rosary to bits. While pointing to the Christ he tried to say, “Take it away”. Nothing was dead: He said “a bird” if he picked up a broken wing, A perished leaf or any such thing Was just “a rose”; and once when I had said He must not stand and knock there any more, He left a twig on the mat outside my door. Not long ago The last thrush stiffened in the snow, While black against a sullen sky The sighing pines stood by. But now the wind has left our rattled pane To flutter the hedge-sparrow’s wing, The birches in the wood are red again And only yesterday The larks went up a little way to sing What lovers say Who loiter in the lanes to-day; The buds begin to talk of May With learned rooks on city trees, And if God please With all of these We, too, shall see another Spring. But in that red brick barn upon the hill I wonder—can one own the deer, And does one walk with children still As one did here? Do roses grow Beneath those twenty windows in a row— And if some night When you have not seen any light They cannot move you from your chair What happens there? I do not know. So, when they took Ken to that place, I did not look After he called and turned on me His eyes. These I shall see—

[imprisonment boom has developed] [a built-in growth dynamic] [the number of prisoners continues to grow while crime drops] [and had even prevented] [Crime never does stay down for long] [experts say] [though crime has been declining for six years] [In 1996, the incarcera- tion rate for black men was] [eight times the rate for white men] [Crime never does stay down for long] [experts say] [a built-in growth dynamic] [independent of crime] [Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals] [and had even prevented] [Crime never does stay] [recent radio interview] [sheriff] [declared proudly] [“sexually explic- it”] [he has formed the first women’s chain gang] [in the world] [More than two-thirds of the prisoners] [pre-trial defendants] [sheriff] [defines “sexually explicit” as] [“personal photographs, drawings, mag- azines, and pictorials that show frontal nudity”] [if that painting would affect prison security] [the judge agreed] [allowing materials depicting “frontal nudity” in the cells] [could lead to] [harassment of female guards, creating a “hostile work environment”] [sheriff] [declared proudly] [formed the first women’s chain gang] [on more than 500 talk shows] [“sexually explicit”] [Some expressed the opinion] [American marines and officials had done too little] [to dig out] [victims from the rubble] [in the crucial early hours of the disaster] [and had even prevented] [Some expressed the opinion] [materials depicting frontal nudity] [could lead to unconstitu- tional conditions] [including excessive use of force against inmates] [deliberate indifferent to inmates’ serious medical needs] [creating a “hostile work environment”] [those who died were] [all Tanzanians employed by the embassy] [including excessive use of force against inmates and deliberate indifference] [to dig out] [victims from the rub- ble] [“environment”] [materials depicting frontal nudity] [could lead to conflict among pris- oners] [two inmates could get into a fight if the atheist said, “Look at the size of the genitals on Jesus Christ”] [materials depicting nudity] [are “reasonably likely” to be] [the cause of violence] [a Michelangelo painting of a nude Christ] [an inmate] [was banned from having Playboy delivered to his cell] [if that painting would affect a prison securi- ty] [experts say] [“Look at the size of the”] [sheriff] [relatives of victims expressed a quiet outrage] [“personal pho- tographs”] [too little to help] [Kenyans were paying with their lives for American foreign policy decisions] [a built-in growth dynamic] [embassies will always be vulnerable] [searchng for survivors] [They are not designed to be armed forts in hostile territory] [“We trained cameras on the street”] [“suspicious vehicles were reported”] [The larg- er the number of prisoners] [experts say] [the bigger the number of people who will someday be released] [There were no American deaths in the Tanzanian bombing, officials said] [to help them extricate] [including excessive use of force] [several Kenyan rescue workers complained] [American marines and other American officials] [and had even prevented] [them from taking dead Kenyans out of the embassy] [from searching for survivors there] [And embassies will always be vulnerable] [“personal photographs, draw- ings, magazines, and pictorials that show frontal nudity”] [are reason- ably likely] [to be] [the cause of violence] [“If it’s a war between the Americans and other people, they should take the war elsewhere”] [to help them extricate people] [Many of the inmates are housed in tents] [in hostile territory] [there were no American] [quiet outrage] [frontal nudity] [either because of their own criminal propensities or] [a Michelangelo painting of a nude Christ] [in the crucial early hours of the disaster] [rescue workers] [Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals] [“If it’s a war between the Americans and other people”] [sheriff] [if that painting would affect] [armed forts in hostile territory] [to help them extricate people] [either because of their own criminal propensities or] [will always be vulnerable] [Many relatives of the victims] [of racial dispari- ty in the nation’s prisons] [materials depicting “frontal nudity” could lead to conflicts among prisoners] [though crime has been declining] [the incarceration rate for black men was eight times the rate for white men] [either because of their own criminal propensities or] [more than 500 talk shows] [Several Kenyan rescue workers complained] [Crime never does stay down] [including excessive use of force] [there are also sharp regional differences] [7 of the 10 states] [being in the South] [the incarceration rate] [banned from having Playboy] [“should take the war elsewhere”] [harrassment of female guards] [unconstitutional conditions] [excessive use of] [Drug Enforcement Administration] [drug crimes constituted the biggest source of growth for female inmates] [statistical branch of the Justice Department] [housed in tents] [materials depicting “frontal nudity”] [a Michelangelo painting of a nude Christ] [drug crimes] [deliberate indifference to medical needs] [if the atheist said] [“sexually explicit”] [“personal photographs”] [recent radio interview] [“most people who work in the prison business”] [“don’t look for drops in crime”] [due process] [Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals] [the larger the number of prisoners] [Several Kenyan rescue workers complained] [dig out victims from the rubble] [“most people who work in the prison business”] [independent of crime rate] [female inmates] [depicting “frontal nudity”] [American foreign policy deci- sions] [statistical branch of the Justice Department] [Playboy] [“should take the war elsewhere”] [either because of their own criminal propen- sities or] [American] [black men] [will always be vulnerable] [because they are not designed] [if a painting could affect] [being in the South] [Michelangelo] [“We trained cameras”] [“personal photographs”] [“suspicious vehicles”] [the judge agreed] [Playboy] [in his cell] [female inmates] [“frontal nudity”] [female guards] [in the crucial early hours of] [Playboy] [those who died were all] [the cause of violence] [or their experience behind bars] [Drug Enforcement Administration] [“most people who work in the prison business”] [sheriff] [because they are not designed] [either because of] [the larger the number of prisoners] [Crime never does] [show “frontal nudity”] [the first women’s chain gang] [Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals] [of racial disparity] [while crime drops] [and had even prevented] [Christ] [the cause of violence] [American marines and officials] [has helped reduce] [black men] [due process] [rate for black men was] [stay down] [“Look at the size of the”] [Drug Enforcement Administration] [number of prisoners] [incarceration rate] [“If it’s a war”] [on the street] [get into a fight] [get into a fight if the atheist said] [American marines and officials had done too little to help] [Michelangelo]

November 9, 2016 University of Notre Dame minutes felt like hours "deplorables knocking at your door" he shouted the day after—“build the wall— we're building a wall around your room!" minutes felt like hours "cowards!" you managed, catching a glimpse by cracking your door: there were three of them scurrying down the hall, their faces obscured… your back against the wall, you slid to the floor— "Hail Mary..." you began whispering to yourself and back they came their laughter louder minutes felt like hours and the thumping in your chest— his fist pounding the door for Gregory Jenn ('18)

I was so thirsty, you cracked an egg into my mouth. I ate it & thanked you. We were so rich then. I imagined the moon, a being I’d never seen, in every nail you’d use to tack the tarp over our heads. I confused hens clucking for the ringing of the phone you’d never let me answer. With a spatula to my ear, I’d pretend to be a woman on TV & say: ¿Bueno? Your anger was the gun you kept by the door, my fear, the knife I used to chop onions. One night you confused the sound of a snake rattling for rain. The snake opened its jaw & its fangs were the color of mud. You reached for my thighs just before you died & I couldn’t face you. Once you stopped breathing I rubbed your beard between my hands & played the most beautiful cumbia. We danced for the first time since our wedding.

from our deep cool verandah we spy on the world passing by. we both wear glasses in order to pick out the details. even as children we noticed all. people would say dont like those twins they look at you funny. we were reassured. our powers had been confirmed. but that was a long while ago. now we are 60. we have lived in this ground floor flat on the main road for 20 years. it is a very suitable dwelling, and we have a satisfactory relationship with the landlord. we think he is pleased we notice his transparency. we have been here since we left our husbands who got in the way of our observations. after our evening meal we talk quietly of what we have seen. we believe in sharing our observations in case one of us has missed something. for our eyesight isnt as sharp as it was ten years ago. though we do clean our glasses each hour and keep our hair tied firmly back in small grey buns so nothing can distract our focus. we are small women. many people do not notice us, while we are noticing them. we keep to ourselves. mother used to say to us never get too friendly with strangers they can harm you. even if they smile and offer you an hour of their lives dont tell them nothing. mother knew a lot. she always kept the bible and a cloth to clean her hands on the kitchen table within reach. at night we take turns to sit at the window and watch. we set the alarm at 2 and 6. this way we both get some sleep. theres always something to see along this road. even at 3 in the morning. last night we saw a woman in a torn fur coat, gum boots and a beanie blow up balloons, tie them on her arms as if they were wings. she climbed up a tree, spread her arms and jumped. we think she might have injured herself. she screamed for quite a while until one of the passing motorists stopped and rang for an ambulance. we didnt want to get involved. our slippers might have gotten wet. it had been raining quite heavily. another night one of the local drunks fell asleep on our verandah. he smelt wretched but we were pleased to be able to get a closer look at him. for several weeks we had been trying to work out a few things about him. at least we were able to see how thick and long the scar on his bald head was. we were able to read the words on his tattoos, ‘dearest jean’ and ‘sailor boy’. we also saw a thin line thru the word ‘jean’ as if he had tried to cut the word out. very interesting. we scrubbed the verandah with disinfectant the next morning. it didnt take long. we keep records of our observations in a private code in large journals. we are saving them up for the day when our memories fail us. then we can read them thru to recall the details. they are an assurance that our days have been full and busy. we put black velvet covers on these books. they are so soft to stroke. just like the backs of our 8 black cats who often sleep like guardians in front of the cupboard as if they recognised the importance of its contents. there are many folks with bad legs along this road. they hobble ever so slowly up and down all day as if they had all the time in the world. they bandage their legs in different ways. some of the bandages are rather grubby. you’d think theyd wash them. there are plenty of laundromats around here. every pension day they could wash them. they could share a machine. you can fit a good deal in one of these contraptions – at least ten bandages. dear me. if theyd looked where they were going instead of expecting life to do everything for them, they wouldnt be in this predicament. we’re so pleased we’re not handicapped. we have only ourselves to thank. and of course mother. pension morning is always busy. we always make sure the teapot is full by 9.30. the crowd gathers outside the bank. for at least  half an hour. theres no time to get up and put the jug on for some time. they clutter the footpath. so many of them. it takes a while for us to sort out who’s there. we sometimes use the journal if we cant quite locate every face. often its the only way to really know who died before the postman called. on our deep cool verandah we sit. the twins. there are no mirrors in our hallway.

1 Four poilus in a wood austerely shitting. Death watches them, laughing, its sides splitting. Life is a cry followed by laughter. The body before, the waste after. 2 Could one hear in that wood the gentle click of  the shutter like the breaking of a stick or the safety catch on its climacteric 3 Like the four winds. Like a low fart that rips clean air in two, like urine that drips. Four squatting footsoldiers of  the Apocalypse. 4 Kiss them lightly, faint breeze in the small  leaves, be the mop on the brow, the sigh that relieves. Let them dump and move on into the dark plate of  the unexposed future, too little and too late.