21 August 2008 | Vol. 8, No. 2
Poem without an Epigraph
– for Chris Nealon
It's going to be another bad winter,
as in, not a good example of winter:
you can sit on the beach in November
with no coat. If a dog wants to play,
why not throw your phone
into the ocean? It probably floats;
it's mostly plastic. Earphones
too—the sand here "sings."
This would be a good spot
for a stand selling single-use
remote-control boats—robots
as far as the eye can see.
Let's ruin the world
and get it over with. I hate
"the sea." Except as a vessel
for my message in a bottle—
what good would it be?
My heat-seeking missive
in seawater ink, the faintest
blue, coasts, disappearing
horizonward. It could be for anyone.
But aims for you.
About the author:
Elisa Gabbert's recent work can be found in Colorado Review, DIAGRAM, Eleven Eleven, Meridian, Pleiades, Washington Square, and other journals. She is the author of two chapbooks from Kitchen Press, Thanks for Sending the Engine (2007) and My Fear of X (forthcoming). She is also co-author, with Kathleen Rooney, of Something Really Wonderful (dancing girl press, 2007) and That Tiny Insane Voluptuousness (Otoliths Books, 2008).
For further reading:
See the complete list of work by Elisa Gabbert at 42opus. Browse the contents of 42opus Vol. 8, No. 2, where "Poem without an Epigraph" ran on August 21, 2008. List other work with these same labels: poetry.
