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Vandal Poem of the Day: December 12, 2015

by Sherwin Bitsui

I cover my eyes with electrical wires,

see yellow dawn eclipse Stop signs,

turn green and screech into phosphorescence.

Each flickering finger:

a memory of a flashing yellow sign,

blinks between charcoal sheets of monsoon rain

then slices through the thawing of our hunger

with the cracked eaves of a shattered house.

Its autobiographical muscle —

stringing trees into a forest, convulses,

only to be flattened under its metallic leaves

and sold as bricks for its basement of fire.

from Flood SongFind it in the library

Copyright © 2009 Sherwin Bitsui
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc.
on behalf of Copper Canyon Press.

Published in Poems Sherwin Bitsui

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council, a State-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this (publication, website, exhibit, etc.) do not necessarily represent those of the Idaho Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.