The Brooklyn Rail

Name Day

my thirtieth name day in the market
I can see nothing but plastics
some somber silver fruit feeling eating remembered
blueberries in automatic February
wants traced on the very earth

when I lived I liked to rhyme it
my name’s James
and friendship dreamt
enough it was for me

radiant blue sleep starts
to slip from its husk

a people at the lip of weird heat
and worry inflected first as fruit is
usurped sadness its own
eaten ifs

my name not what
the word peeled
from raw rock
and tormented
perfect systems

then we’ll be hard past belief
and bear addressing

place our pleasures in a row
nest in each readiness
a split pedagogical fruit
says not the hoped for
but nonetheless
the born one

nonetheless
the one born

This is Serious, James

this is serious, James
this time it’s for real for real
no more dry runs
nor hesitations
blistered with refinement

the time to panic is now, James
so gather your stomachs into your throat
your human throat
gather them there gather
your he-stomachs and she-stomachs
and make it count

James, this is no drill
no joke’s freaked filaments
can be coyly called for now
just you wait and see
or try and call one

it’s really the big one this time, James
there’s no way out
the wave’s come in
the actual floor has cracked in half
and the little sprites and archangels
are truly whizzing now

yes, the moment is finally here, James
so let’s see that marvelous fear
unveiled at last
you have been readying all your days