The Tree of Knowledge

Shane McCrae

The hastily assembled angel saw
One thing was like another thing and that
Thing like another everything     depend-
ed on     how high it was     the place you saw

Things from     and he had seen the Earth from where
A human couldn’t see the Earth     and could-
n’t tell most human things apart    and though
He hadn’t ever really understood

His job he knew it had to do with seeing
And what he saw     was everything would come
Together at the same time everything
Would fall apart     and that was humans thinking

The world was meant for them and other things
Were accidental     or were decora-
tions meant for them and therefore purposeful
That humans thought that God had told them so

And what the hastily assembled angel
Thought     was that probably God had said the same thing
To every living thing     on Earth and on-
ly stopped when one said Really back     but then

Again     the hastily assembled angel
Couldn’t tell human things apart     and maybe
That Really mattered what     would he have heard
Holy     or maybe Folly     or maybe Kill me

In the Event Of

Officer how you know I’m dancing is the body

-cam. Look, I’m riding centuries of whips, the first half

Of the ghost, arms out the window up, the second half

Arms flat on the pavement, palms down, now the ghost is whole

My arms stretched forward, like I’m bowing, but if I

Were standing, stretched above my head. Officer how

Shane McCrae

2021

What Sadness Anywhere Is Sadness

^{—for Melissa}

What sadness anywhere is sadness where
I could just stand and walk to you from sadness
Go home to you though I bring home my sadness
What sadness there though I have felt sad there

Before when I come home from far away
What sadness then or from three blocks uptown
My office where I write this poem down
In a room full of the dimness that fills spac-

Shane McCrae

2020

From the Ground It Must Have Looked Like Its Wings Were Not a Part of It

I rode to Heaven on a bird that did-

n’t look like any bird I ever saw

Before I saw it the bird’s wings were wide

And long and brightly colored and had no

Feathers but panels like glass held together

By black bones criss- crossing them from the ground

Shane McCrae

2019

Poems

The Tree of Knowledge

More by this poet

In the Event Of

What Sadness Anywhere Is Sadness

From the Ground It Must Have Looked Like Its Wings Were Not a Part of It

Poems

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The Tree of Knowledge

More by this poet

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