Head-Turner
From To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness (Alfred A. Knopf, 2022) by Robin Coste Lewis. Used with the permission of the publisher.
Poems
Find and share the perfect poems.
More by this poet
A translation of Konstantin Cavafy’s “I was asking about the quality”
For Felicia, Kipper, Oscar, and Kevin.
And for Ted and Barron, in memoriam
I came out
of the office
2025
Or perhaps—perhaps—I am just an upturned tree, all my roots earth
laden and bare. Perhaps I fell over so I could worship at the altars of birds.
Or I am a harlequin waterfowl, speckled—black-white, black-white—
hiding safely in day or night. My eyelids are made of feathers
so dark they throw off an emerald sheen. And here I am—still—at home
bobbing on top of this endless white sea, batting my lashes
toward every beacon—on any remaining shore—ignited
2022
Early morning. Still dark. I am in a taxi. The most elegant ‘ti Creole in the world is on the radio. I catch a sliver and think how one tiny word can be sacred—an artifact—the only green thing that returns inside the beak.
okra
2022