Space Struck: Poems by Paige Lewis (2019)
Space Struck: Poems by Paige Lewis (2019)
II.
You Be You, and
I’ll Be Busy
chewing five sticks of Juicy Fruit,
turning my jaw into a clicking, pain-
pricked mess and reaching for
another pack because hard work
is defined by a body’s wreckage, and I
want you to know I’m hard at work
writing my presidential acceptance
speech: A dartboard in every garage!
A prison sentence for anyone caught
explaining magic. You be me, and I’ll
be the man leaning against your fence,
expecting compliments on my new
haircut. Now, be you and take
this personality quiz. Do you scrape
your fork against your teeth? Results
are in: you’re the kind of person
who has to stop doing that. You be
you, and I’ll be racing across the yard,
trying to catch robins to prove how
tender I am with tender things. I’ll be
Glenn Gould, hunched and humming
at your piano until it suddenly springs
a leak-the notes too full to hold
themselves together. I’ll be me again
when I open the windows to keep
our apartment from flooding. Don’t
be the woman on the sidewalk below,
drenched and furious. Instead, take
a turn as Gould. An older Gould-
wear gloves indoors, tell me you
can’t have lovers for fear of harming
your elegant hands, clamber about the bed
being the man who always almost touches
me. Then become the man who does.
Diorama of
Ghosts
i spent years living with ghosts
strung between my teeth
Like corn silk?
like ghosts
How did they get there?
good hygiene or poor
taste
perhaps a blend
Why keep them?
i was so sad
i would have harbored
anything
Have you earned the right
to say sad?
i dont want to
talk about that
When did they leave?
all at once
…
they cannonballed
right into a punch bowl
and ruined my best
shirt
Do you know why they left?
when the dust is swept
the broom is stored
behind the door again
Do you miss them?
they made me the delicate
gulper i am today
But do you miss them?
the mention
of silence
I don’t understand.
worse
than the silence itself
III.
The River Reflects Nothing (excerpt)
We are only remembered as cruel when
what we harm does not die quickly.
Notes
The title “You Be You, and I’ll Be Busy” is inspired by the title of the poem “I’ll Be Me and You Be Goethe” by Heather Christle, which can be found in her collection What Is Amazing (Wesleyan, 2012).
In “Diorama of Ghosts,” the lines “when the dust is swept / the broom is stored / behind the door again” come from Saint Bernadette Soubirous who said, “The Virgin used me as a broom to remove the dust. When the work is done, the broom is put behind the door again.”
II.
You Be You, and
I’ll Be Busy
chewing five sticks of Juicy Fruit,
turning my jaw into a clicking, pain-
pricked mess and reaching for
another pack because hard work
is defined by a body’s wreckage, and I
want you to know I’m hard at work
writing my presidential acceptance
speech: A dartboard in every garage!
A prison sentence for anyone caught
explaining magic. You be me, and I’ll
be the man leaning against your fence,
expecting compliments on my new
haircut. Now, be you and take
this personality quiz. Do you scrape
your fork against your teeth? Results
are in: you’re the kind of person
who has to stop doing that. You be
you, and I’ll be racing across the yard,
trying to catch robins to prove how
tender I am with tender things. I’ll be
Glenn Gould, hunched and humming
at your piano until it suddenly springs
a leak-the notes too full to hold
themselves together. I’ll be me again
when I open the windows to keep
our apartment from flooding. Don’t
be the woman on the sidewalk below,
drenched and furious. Instead, take
a turn as Gould. An older Gould-
wear gloves indoors, tell me you
can’t have lovers for fear of harming
your elegant hands, clamber about the bed
being the man who always almost touches
me. Then become the man who does.
Diorama of
Ghosts
i spent years living with ghosts
strung between my teeth
Like corn silk?
like ghosts
How did they get there?
good hygiene or poor
taste
perhaps a blend
Why keep them?
i was so sad
i would have harbored
anything
Have you earned the right
to say sad?
i dont want to
talk about that
When did they leave?
all at once
…
they cannonballed
right into a punch bowl
and ruined my best
shirt
Do you know why they left?
when the dust is swept
the broom is stored
behind the door again
Do you miss them?
they made me the delicate
gulper i am today
But do you miss them?
the mention
of silence
I don’t understand.
worse
than the silence itself
III.
The River Reflects Nothing (excerpt)
We are only remembered as cruel when
what we harm does not die quickly.
Notes
The title “You Be You, and I’ll Be Busy” is inspired by the title of the poem “I’ll Be Me and You Be Goethe” by Heather Christle, which can be found in her collection What Is Amazing (Wesleyan, 2012).
In “Diorama of Ghosts,” the lines “when the dust is swept / the broom is stored / behind the door again” come from Saint Bernadette Soubirous who said, “The Virgin used me as a broom to remove the dust. When the work is done, the broom is put behind the door again.”