Yotam Hadass
3 poems
**
January 7th
Reckless! To drink a full day’s water portion
in a single sip. To be so thirsty at night;
I lost control. The wolf with dog-eyes meows.
Perhaps I should give him tomorrow’s portion.
Recklessness by design is our share. Pity
on our realm, our wolves.
A sigh in the desert-night melts with abundant wind
into insignificance. Tell that to the wolf.
I have always sighed at nights.
I’ve loved the planet, sunbeams.
Yet ignored too much:
Balconies, sprouts, the cha cha.
**
May 1st
For what purpose have I spent years gathering,
hunting, pasturing, stone-then-iron-working,
farming, inventing language, introducing the camel
to the desert, fusing tin and copper, housing in
wood and skin, pleasing the rains and the spirits,
rejecting the rains and the spirits for a rain and a
spirit, inventing algebra and the concept of zero,
alchemy, chemistry and kinematics, enslaving
everyone, freeing everyone, learning to fly and
breath underwater and record actions and sound on
magnetic tapes and speaking to people who are not
here, transforming information to zeros and ones,
then to electric current and all the way back, for
what under the sun
have I murdered and been murdered and raped,
played catch and chess and soccer, spent decades
writing all those books and their horrible reviews
and their post-mortem acknowledgement of genius,
built temples on top of temples I ruined, tamed and
abused billions of chickens? For what? All those
crazy types of omelets?
**
June 15th (night)
Why time a mist?
To build your own house,
not to miss anything sexual
Those presumptuous attempts
never not succeed
Miscellaneous moments like one two
No monsoons here, seasonal winds
no showers
Where are our trysts,
you ask? Never answered.
My own raven-eagle here.
No sheaves, no ore,
no access to fish – limited brains
Why time a mist as a question?
No telling; where is my wife?
“Where” – is my wife?
**
return to sawbuck 4.1
**
Yotam Hadass is a poet living in Brooklyn. He co-edits LEVELER poetry magazine and has an MFA from The New School. He works for webook.com.
**
January 7th
Reckless! To drink a full day’s water portion
in a single sip. To be so thirsty at night;
I lost control. The wolf with dog-eyes meows.
Perhaps I should give him tomorrow’s portion.
Recklessness by design is our share. Pity
on our realm, our wolves.
A sigh in the desert-night melts with abundant wind
into insignificance. Tell that to the wolf.
I have always sighed at nights.
I’ve loved the planet, sunbeams.
Yet ignored too much:
Balconies, sprouts, the cha cha.
**
May 1st
For what purpose have I spent years gathering,
hunting, pasturing, stone-then-iron-working,
farming, inventing language, introducing the camel
to the desert, fusing tin and copper, housing in
wood and skin, pleasing the rains and the spirits,
rejecting the rains and the spirits for a rain and a
spirit, inventing algebra and the concept of zero,
alchemy, chemistry and kinematics, enslaving
everyone, freeing everyone, learning to fly and
breath underwater and record actions and sound on
magnetic tapes and speaking to people who are not
here, transforming information to zeros and ones,
then to electric current and all the way back, for
what under the sun
have I murdered and been murdered and raped,
played catch and chess and soccer, spent decades
writing all those books and their horrible reviews
and their post-mortem acknowledgement of genius,
built temples on top of temples I ruined, tamed and
abused billions of chickens? For what? All those
crazy types of omelets?
**
June 15th (night)
Why time a mist?
To build your own house,
not to miss anything sexual
Those presumptuous attempts
never not succeed
Miscellaneous moments like one two
No monsoons here, seasonal winds
no showers
Where are our trysts,
you ask? Never answered.
My own raven-eagle here.
No sheaves, no ore,
no access to fish – limited brains
Why time a mist as a question?
No telling; where is my wife?
“Where” – is my wife?
**
return to sawbuck 4.1
**
Yotam Hadass is a poet living in Brooklyn. He co-edits LEVELER poetry magazine and has an MFA from The New School. He works for webook.com.
Labels: 4.1, spring 2010, yotam hadass
