"While Waiting for the Bus" by Eliot Khalil Wilson

[View this email on a browser]( [Forward to a friend]( [facebook-icon]( [tumblr-icon]( [twitter-icon]( July 2, 2019 [While Waiting for the Bus]( [Eliot Khalil Wilson]( Under the eaves of the gas-mart—swallows fall into the day, wheel before the headless grooms of the formal wear shop, angle low as my shoes, then comet up, sheer, careless of traffic, all that is grounded or down. A flight of leaf-blown cursives, blue coats over dashing white, the red-rift of dawn painted upon their crowns and busy throats. I must learn to keep them with me, to hold, somehow, their accomplished joy when I’m gone to the city where I am mostly old and their song, under the noise of hours, is done. But now, auto exhaust cripples the air as my grey somnambulant bus draws near. [Like this on Facebook]( [Share via Twitter]( Copyright © 2019 Eliot Khalil Wilson. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 2, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets. [Wilson reads "While Waiting for the Bus."]( About This Poem “I spend a lot of time waiting for the bus and while I wait, I look for images. ‘While Waiting for the Bus’ is the first poem in a book of sonnets about passengers in this dystopic American economy. There is nothing at all fictional about this particular poem. The sonnet form, with its casual easy-seeming difficulty, seemed right for the subject.” —Eliot Khalil Wilson [Eliot Khalil Wilson]( Eliot Khalil Wilson is the author of three books of poems, including most recently the audio-chapbook The Lunatic’s Left-Hand Man (Golden Walkman Press, 2019). A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, he currently lives in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. [The Lunatic's Left-Hand Man]( Poetry by Wilson [The Lunatic’s Left-Hand Man]( (Golden Walkman Press, 2019) "Migration" by Bianca Stone [read-more]( "From the Ground It Must Have Looked Like Its Wings Were Not a Part of It" by Shane McCrae [read-more]( "Crown" by Sally Rosen Kindred [read-more]( July Guest Editor: Paul Guest Thanks to [Paul Guest](, author of Because Everything Is Terrible (Diode Editions, 2018), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read a [Q&A with Guest]( about his curatorial approach this month and find out more about our [guest editors for the year.]( [make a one-time donation]( [illustration]( [Small-Blue-RGB-poets.org-Logo]( Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit [Poets.org](. You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click [here](. © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038