Apology

To know nothing     of living things

       Those that exist often

Beside us              Hello, she says

       & does it hear, do you?

Days, nights, watching a stranger's heart

       Stumble against his skin

It wants out, and the body

       Is a flesh dress he'll take off

Only once, at the last

       Hello, she says

Our heart is on exhibit

       Walk around our common institute 

Of higher learning

Credit

Author

Claudia Keelan

Claudia Keelan is the author of eight collections of poetry: We Step into the Sea: New and Selected Poems (Barrow Street, 2018), O, Heart (Barrow Street, 2014), Missing Her (New Issues Press, 2009), The Devotion Field (Alice James Books, 2004), Of & Among There Was a Locus(t) (Ashata Press, 2003), Utopic (Alice James Books, 2000), The Secularist (University of Georgia Press, 1997), and Refinery (Cleveland State University Press, 1994).

Date Published

11/29/2010