Lisa Olstein, "Ibex Have Evolved for Life at the Top"

Ibex Have Evolved for Life at the Top

When we say specimen
we mean you. By you
we mean whatever
collection of night sweats
and shopping lists accumulates
in the bed by dawn. When
we say dark we mean pitch,
moonless, starless,
don't even open your eyes.
When we say he has your eyes
we mean we see nothing
of you there. If you want
someone to come for you,
you'll have to cry harder than that.
If you want to be prepared,
practice: blizzard, fire, famine.
Your shoes or your coat?
Your cat or your dog?
Sister, daughter, mother, wife?


— Lisa Olstein
from The Nation 291:20, November 15, 2010








I got this from heresluck , who's been posting a poem on Monday for a lot of Mondays now (even if sometimes the Mondays come on Tuesday or Wednesday *g*). H.L. also observes that yesterday was the release date for Olstein's collaboration with Jeffrey Foucault, Cold Satellite , which you may now find is something you want to know about.