Issue 23

Fall 2020

A way to wait away the news

Genevieve Kaplan

I thought to shelve, I thought to put away, to notice and to ask for

and observe. I’m most of the time usually fine

with others talking

like that, and keeping up with their pleasures or certain

inferiorities. Here, I was able to muster hardly any

of that original interest, that gusto, hoping just one usage

would be mine, another manner would be mine, and I’d answer

like a metronome no matter the cause, no matter

the question.

When others begin to determine my time and imply where

I’d go from there I try keeping each word

near: astound, iron, peacock,

lentil, until I’ve lost them

or found another, I’ve found another. The language tells

a secret of my neighborhood. In that moment,

believing tender and text and what about

truth, I was awry, it turned

out, with understanding.

About the Author

Genevieve KaplanGenevieve Kaplan is the author of (aviary) (Veliz Books, 2020), In the ice house (Red Hen Press, 2011), and three chapbooks. Her recent poems can be found in Faultline, Oversound, can we have our ball back?, Poetry, and other journals. A new chapbook, I exit the hallway and turn right, is forthcoming from above/ground press. A poet, scholar, book-maker, and fiber artist, Genevieve edits the Toad Press International chapbook series, publishing contemporary translations of poetry and prose. She lives in southern California.

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