from BLOCK ISLAND
It rang and rang generously welling up in me
pouring over my edges, rang and drifted off
drifting off if you pick up the phone
I will overflow and love you forever
tell you I’ll love you forever, friends
can do this, bear down on one another with emotion
and when it is too much the phone will
just ring and ring and ring and flatlined
by the woman I stood there thinking
how mean she was and how much I wanted her
not to be that way and how much my wanting
would never pick up and you once said I’m not
going to leave until we figure this out said
I won’t leave until we figure this out.
--Joshua Beckman
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2 comments:
I enjoy that, while these lines are disconcerting & fast-moving, Beckman has found room to slow things down via phrasings and word orderings. Thanks for sharing this.
Hi Tony,
Block Island is such a crushingly beautiful poem. Wyoming also a fav of mine from SIETBD. Glad that you're enjoying JB.
~Betsy (W)
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