once a book must have fallen
from the sky so large
the people could not see
where its pages
ended it was an open
field the people could walk
their eyes and forget what brought
them to the field
Skin and clean a fat young sheep. Open
a port city to overseas guests
between two muscles and remove all that is
its stomach.
In its interior, place
surveyors in exploratory khaki
a stuffed goose and in the goose’s
Hearing of Alia Muhammed Baker’s Stroke
How a Basra librarian
could haul the books each night,
load by load, into her car,
the war ticking like a clock
about to wake. Her small house
swimming in them.
Philip Metres is a poet and a translator whose work has appeared in numerous journals and in Best American Poetry (2002). His books include Instants (chap, 2006), Primer for Non-Native Speakers (chap, 2004), Catalogue of Comedic Novelties: Selected Poems of Lev Rubinstein (2004), and A Kindred Orphanhood: Selected Poems of Sergey Gandlevsky (2003). Forthcoming is Behind the Lines: War Resistance Poetry on the American Homefront, Since 1941 (University of Iowa Press, 2007), a study of the interactions between American poets and the peace movement. He teaches literature and creative writing at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. Were it not for Ellis Island, his last name would be Abourjaili. He can be reached at pmetres@jcu.edu.
Philip Metres
Associate Professor
Department of English
John Carroll University
20700 N. Park Blvd
University Heights, OH 44118
phone: (216) 397-4528 (work)
fax: (216) 397-1723
http://www.philipmetres.com