Michael Marberry
Red Song
– after Rilke
Little tomato: Do not let the black
night of my morning diminishment
affect you! Every moment terrifies,
even those that lie to us with sweet
nostalgia like a beer, its bitter finish.
Little tomato! You adore the earth-
light more than any other. I can see
how much its winter abandonment
has killed you from your mourning
and your once-red orbs of sexuality.
I remember how, like the monster
in every imagination, you sprawled
along the steel vines of my portico
like a bedspring taut with potential,
condemning to shadow your lesser
brothers: beautiful, earliest murder.
Every moment terrifies like a white
-collar criminal with total immunity,
little tomato! We cannot escape it:
The fruits of your fruits are failing.
Michael Marberry's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Believer, The New Republic, DIAGRAM, Waxwing, and elsewhere and in anthologies like The Pushcart Prize Anthology and Best of the Net. Originally from rural Tennessee, he is currently serving as the Creative Writing Fellow in Poetry at Emory University. More of his work can be found at www.michaelmarberry.com.
Return to November 2018 Edition
– after Rilke
Little tomato: Do not let the black
night of my morning diminishment
affect you! Every moment terrifies,
even those that lie to us with sweet
nostalgia like a beer, its bitter finish.
Little tomato! You adore the earth-
light more than any other. I can see
how much its winter abandonment
has killed you from your mourning
and your once-red orbs of sexuality.
I remember how, like the monster
in every imagination, you sprawled
along the steel vines of my portico
like a bedspring taut with potential,
condemning to shadow your lesser
brothers: beautiful, earliest murder.
Every moment terrifies like a white
-collar criminal with total immunity,
little tomato! We cannot escape it:
The fruits of your fruits are failing.
Michael Marberry's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Believer, The New Republic, DIAGRAM, Waxwing, and elsewhere and in anthologies like The Pushcart Prize Anthology and Best of the Net. Originally from rural Tennessee, he is currently serving as the Creative Writing Fellow in Poetry at Emory University. More of his work can be found at www.michaelmarberry.com.
Return to November 2018 Edition