7.02 / February 2012

Say When

Sophie Klahr

[wpaudio url=”/audio/7_2/Klahr.mp3″ text=”listen to this poem” dl=”0″]

if you are a man made of birds
if you are a bureau

if chest, if cage

if you are a lovely weather
worn out, say when

if the space between us makes
a dog named vacancy

if I contain all possible crimes

if I pay attention, if I stay very still
if I notice how stupid we are

if I sing a prayer in a meadow
if I am a prayer in a meadow
if I bury prayers in a meadow, write
on a leaf the name of your wife

vacancy begs & whines
all week without you,
restless as lying, & I don’t know
what to feed it

say, the rains will come say,
breathe say, breathe

say, I should be put in a cage

I can wait and not wait, want
and just be a seed, a glass,
a pocket, someone
you can always make laugh

the bedroom’s red light catching
sweat like cinders in your hair

if, say, I was always on fire
if, say, I could see the city from here

Sophie Klahr was born in Pittsburgh, PA. She is the author of the chapbook (Blank) Versus Recovery (Pilot Books, 2007). Recent poetry has appeared, or is forthcoming, in journals such as Chautauqua, Lo-Ball, Oh No, Ploughshares, The Normal School, The Offending Adam, and Typo. She currently lives in Texas, where she is an MFA candidate at the University of Houston, and teaches creative writing at the High School for Visual and Performing Arts. She is an assistant poetry editor for Gulf Coast, and the chief poetry editor for Gigantic Sequins. She is not made of steel.

7.02 / February 2012