“Promised Years” by Dorothea Lasky

[View this email on a browser]( [Forward to a friend]( [facebook-icon]( [tumblr-icon]( [twitter-icon]( April 26, 2017 [Promised Years]( [Dorothea Lasky]( I would tell her Except she wouldn’t care I’d write him Except he’d never write me back There is a rat they left hanging I’d save it Except it’s dead What is the force that swirls me I asked of the wind There was no reply It was beyond me And I was floating in it Circles and circles I’ve seen them throughout my life I tried to answer them They bled their mouths on me Call me call me I begged of the moon It did not listen It had left me alone So many years ago And as the world collapsed I mouthed the empty rhetoric of my time period Call me call me I begged of the wind [Like this on Facebook]( [Share via Twitter]( Copyright © 2017 Dorothea Lasky. Used with permission of the author. [illustration]( About This Poem “This poem is from a chapbook I just finished called Snakes, which should be out from Tungsten Press soon. The poem is about despair and the chapbook is about evil. For a long time, I have been obsessed with the language of political speech, particularly oration, and how it relates to the language poets use to represent their times.” —Dorothea Lasky Dorothea Lasky is the author of Milk, forthcoming from Wave Books in 2018. She teaches at Columbia University’s School of the Arts and lives in New York City. [more-at-poets]( Poetry by Lasky [Rome]( (Liveright, 2014) "Morning Song" by Sylvia Plath [read-more]( "Why I Am Not a Painter" by Frank O’Hara [read-more]( "What are the consequences of silence?" by Bhanu Kapil [read-more]( Poem-a-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, [Poem-a-Day]( features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. If you enjoy Poem-a-Day, please consider making a [donation]( to help make it possible. [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 From Our Sponsors [Advertisement][Advertisement](