The Sincerity of Thirsty Hermits
by George Kalamaras
Arenas of moray eels access my rich orange complexity.
The sincerity of thirsty hermits is an abundant blue flesh.
I am no one, if not nothing.
Come to my ear and show me how to sign alive.
You are more beautiful than a horoscope made of milk.
You are lonelier than all the shoes outside a temple in India.
My friend K approached his friend J and asked after S, M, and T.
I knew the others peripherally, mostly because of my friends L and Z.
Now the trains play backgammon on the track to Gabon.
We’d all heard of the German professor eaten by cannibals near Brazzaville.
If you want to acquire land in unnatural ways, sit in the dark hut of your heart.
Ask yourself down through the diamonds and dead bodies of what you can only imagine
is loss.
Bio: George Kalamaras, Poet Laureate of Indiana, is the author of seven books of poetry and seven chapbooks, including Kingdom of Throat-Stuck Luck, winner of the Elixir Press Poetry Prize (2011). He is Professor of English at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, where he has taught since 1990.
by George Kalamaras
Arenas of moray eels access my rich orange complexity.
The sincerity of thirsty hermits is an abundant blue flesh.
I am no one, if not nothing.
Come to my ear and show me how to sign alive.
You are more beautiful than a horoscope made of milk.
You are lonelier than all the shoes outside a temple in India.
My friend K approached his friend J and asked after S, M, and T.
I knew the others peripherally, mostly because of my friends L and Z.
Now the trains play backgammon on the track to Gabon.
We’d all heard of the German professor eaten by cannibals near Brazzaville.
If you want to acquire land in unnatural ways, sit in the dark hut of your heart.
Ask yourself down through the diamonds and dead bodies of what you can only imagine
is loss.
Bio: George Kalamaras, Poet Laureate of Indiana, is the author of seven books of poetry and seven chapbooks, including Kingdom of Throat-Stuck Luck, winner of the Elixir Press Poetry Prize (2011). He is Professor of English at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, where he has taught since 1990.