1
We encountered a problem
sending
a command
to the program.
Did I say that
aloud?
I’ve broken out
in imps.
*
To be a blip
in a circuit
and to know it,
to relish
this knowledge
in your private
moments
as all moments
are gated
and switched.
2
When I mentioned hatred
I was not thinking
of you,
but you’d best not break
our momentum,
the thrill we get
from our own self-
loathing,
that guilty snigger
running round the room
Copyright © 2017 by Rae Armantrout. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on May 24, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.
Someone will love you many will love
you many will brother you some of these
loves will bother you some will leave you
one might haunt you hunt you in your
sleep make you weep the tearless kind of
weep the kind of weep that drowns your
organs slowly there are little oars in your body
little boats grab onto them and row and row
someone will tell you no but you won’t know
he is right until you have already wrung your
own heart dry your hands dripping knives until
you have already reached your hands into his
body and put them through his heart love is
the only thing that is not an argument
Copyright © 2017 by Victoria Chang. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on May 29, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.