• “This New Year”

    A Poem by Yusef Komunyakaa

    Listen. These dragon-tooth
    icicles ferried by a season
    between seasons, their icy fangs
    clinging to the eaves of houses
    & bare branches of trees.

    There’s something beautiful
    here but also terrifying, snowy
    mounds
    this hard new year marking my
    bones for bad times, & good times
    to come.

    I don’t know where the
    lightning came from, how it
    began in the left hemisphere, &
    circled out the right side of my
    body, leaving its mark.

    In fact, I’m sleepy now. The field’s
    snowy tufts of dead grass remind
    me of fluffy pillows. Love, where
    am I? No, I can’t lift my foolish,
    right arm,

    always trying to encircle & hold
    joy too close. I was once a fast
    walker, moving ahead & back, in
    the past, fingers tapping a
    ceramic shaker.

    __________________________________

    michigan quarterly review

    “This New Year” first appeared in the Summer 2020 issue of the Michigan Quarterly Review.


    Yusef Komunyakaa
    Yusef Komunyakaa
    Yusef Komunyakaa's books of poetry include Taboo, Dien Cai Dau, Neon Vernacular, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize, Warhorses, and The Chameleon Couch. His most recent collection is The Emperor of Water Clocks. His plays, performance art, and libretti have been performed internationally and include Saturnalia, Testimony, and Gilgamesh. He teaches at New York University.





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