Tuesday poem #15 : Sarah Rosenthal : Five Untitled Poems from Lizard

When you read

about Lizard you

may feel bliss.

That’s her deep

moment rubbing

off on you. Lizard’s

a teenager hungry

and perfect, an

elder bemused by

stingers. She thanks

each one in their

own tongue. Her

means world …

what did you just

forget, remember?

L touches every fact

and you touch L

Questions you might

have: Will a lizard

drink? Do parasites

creep under her skin?

Do you know her

dose? Will she

tolerate a triangle?

Are hyacinths

preferred? Why

does she exhibit

her stay away coat

this morning?

seeing: she licks her lids

snake: interior landscapes resemble

asphalt: mistaken for life-giving warmth of rock

she never: waits or cries

wait: it’s you who wait and when you wait you are most like Lizard

I wear the stay away

coat till I’ve written

down my dreams.

There are coats for

any occasion. Coat

of arms, sugar coat.

Parasitic load may

be managed, given

other factors. Hyacinth,

yes, but nasturtium

too, and dandelion,

and the rose. Hydration

is key and never

standing. Only in

motion is water to me

All the words in

this poem rebel

because Lizard

I’m unimagining

you. A guttural

hope would have

to seduce me now,

a stage whisper

I know what a gun

can do, a hand. My

heart beats against

its walls

     What are

you doing today?

Love is love and

praise my inabilities

The next lines read

we coexisted for

a time. You are

a parent a sibling

of mine. A passing

tryst, a grabbed

wrist

Sarah Rosenthal is the author of Manhatten (Spuyten Duyvil, 2009) and the chapbooks The Animal (Dusie, 2011), How I Wrote This Story (Margin to Margin, 2001), sitings (a+bend, 2000), and not-chicago (Melodeon, 1998). Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous journals including Sidebrow, Zen Monster, textsound, dusie, and Fence, and is anthologized in Building is a Process / Light is an Element: essays and excursions for Myung Mi Kim (P-Queue, 2008), Bay Poetics (Faux, 2006), The Other Side of the Postcard (City Lights, 2005), hinge (Crack, 2002), and Kindergarde: Avant-garde Poems, Plays, and Stories for Children (Black Radish, forthcoming). Her essays and interviews have appeared in journals such as Jacket, Denver Quarterly, Rain Taxi, Otoliths, and New American Writing. She is the recipient of the Leo Litwak Fiction Award and grant-supported writing residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Soul Mountain, and Ragdale. From 2009–2011 she was an Affiliate Artist at Headlands Center for the Arts. She serves on the California Book Awards poetry jury, teaches in the University of San Francisco’s MFA program, and writes curricula for the Developmental Studies Center.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan