Poetry at Sangam

Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.

THE PSYCHIC LIVES OF ANIMALS by Richard Deming

Now it is raining.
            There’s a clarity that makes so long
a life. Again, then, the outside-it-all
and a guarantee
                                    of some exquisite
curse to hate the days you live,
            hate them as you live them,
that is, the manner of how you spend
            the hours. In the deep grass,

            the quiet animals: their eyes slow
            and narrow beneath yellow lids.
            There, one finds no home.

My back sways beneath
            a weight of memory, what

comes with the dream of the lost brother
and the disappointed light of late February.

The fragile bones of birds’ wings
            foretell a sleepy anger
in their own good time.

                                                By now,
there’s nothing to summon back.
The arrow is pointed skyward.
Every angle is terrifying.

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