Instead
1
To each his own
severance package.
The Inca
hacked large stones
into the shapes of
nearby peaks.
2
The eerie thing
is that ghosts don’t exist.
Rows
of clear droplets
hang from stripped twigs
instead.
3
Pain brings attention
to herself.
Spine on Fire!
Trail Blazer!
(Thinks she’s hot.)
Out here
slim trunks bend
every which
“Instead” from Partly: New and Selected Poems, 2001-2015. © 2016 by Rae Armantrout. Published by Wesleyan University Press. Used by permission.
Rae Armantrout
Rae Armantrout was born in Vallejo, California, in 1947, and was part of the first generation of Language poets on the West Coast. She is the author of Partly: New and Selected Poems, 2001–2015 (Wesleyan University Press, 2016); Itself (Wesleyan University Press, 2015).