"Marriage" by Nicole Callihan

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend February 19, 2018   Marriage   Nicole Callihan

& of the lattermath I can only say that with the rain the cattails grew so high that the longing nearly subsided this morning I am all moonshine on the snowbank clockwise back to a better self I am tenderfoot daisywheel though yesterday I was warpath and daydreams of underfoot animals o my fishhook in sheepskin I want to spacewalk in time with you to teaspoon sugar into your mouth to clean horsehairs from under your fingernails honeymoon of the longhouse I'll meet you on the shadyside of the limestone for years I grew lukewarm with a backache but now I am whitefish and blackberries I am forbearer and undercurrent buttermilk and motherhood watertight thunderbird forgive me my wipeout my deadend and foremost forgive me my butterball my washrag wrung out the grasslands of the graveyard I nearly misrecognized what I almost became eggshell watercolor drained pipe goodbye o my forever bedclothes yours is the body warmblooded washbowl that I seahorse into night after night and the dogwood timepiece ticks the gumball fruitcup earache of our girls you my wavelength my tailbone lemonlime jellybean crewcut backstroke beachcomber I do I do                Copyright © 2018 Nicole Callihan. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "Marriage can be difficult; it can change us. Sometimes, though, this change, this bringing together of two separate entities, can be beautiful, much like a compound word. We know the moon, yes, and that it shines, yes, but moonshine is something else entirely. And butter we know, and flies, but butterflies are different. I wanted to play with these compounds, but, ultimately, I wanted to affirm the notion of the individual, the one who has the choice to say, 'I do,' and does." —Nicole Callihan   Nicole Callihan's new collection, Translucence, cowritten with Samar Abdel Jaber, is forthcoming from Indolent Books in 2018. She teaches at New York University's Tandon School of Engineering and lives in Brooklyn, New York.     Photo credit: Amanda Field Poetry by Callihan   Translucence (Indolent Books, 2018) "Stereo" by Anne Waldman "A Few Surprising Turns" by Ira Sadoff "What Is It You Feel I Asked Kurt" by Diane Seuss February Guest Editor: Dawn Lundy Martin   Thanks to Dawn Lundy Martin, author of Good Stock Strange Blood (Coffee House Press, 2017), who curated Poem-a-Day this month. Read more about Martin and our other guest editors for the year. Help Support Poem-a-Day   If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a monthly donation or one-time gift to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038