Michael Bazzett
When the Gods Come Rushing
past, and you lunge to tackle them
and miss, and your sternum
hits the earth and rough air scrapes
out your lungs, this might be
the most honest form of prayer.
A little huff of loss. It lets you know
you lived, believed in divine
intervention, but just couldn’t pull it
off, and when those gods pause
and tauntingly look back, like
thunderclouds massing
over arid plains, know that it is
not the storm you want,
but the deep, deep drink of rain.
Michael Bazzett is the author of five collections of poetry, as well as a verse translation of the creation epic of the Maya, the Popol Vuh (Milkweed Editions, 2018), named by the NY Times as one of the Best Poetry Books of 2018. The recipient of an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship, his writing has appeared in Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, Threepenny Review, 32 Poems, The Paris Review, and The Sun.
Return to September 2024 Edition
past, and you lunge to tackle them
and miss, and your sternum
hits the earth and rough air scrapes
out your lungs, this might be
the most honest form of prayer.
A little huff of loss. It lets you know
you lived, believed in divine
intervention, but just couldn’t pull it
off, and when those gods pause
and tauntingly look back, like
thunderclouds massing
over arid plains, know that it is
not the storm you want,
but the deep, deep drink of rain.
Michael Bazzett is the author of five collections of poetry, as well as a verse translation of the creation epic of the Maya, the Popol Vuh (Milkweed Editions, 2018), named by the NY Times as one of the Best Poetry Books of 2018. The recipient of an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship, his writing has appeared in Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, Threepenny Review, 32 Poems, The Paris Review, and The Sun.
Return to September 2024 Edition