Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


GHAZALS: 27 by JAMES HARRISON

Poet Analysis

First Line: I WANT A SIGN, A HERALDIC BIRD, OR EVEN AN ANGEL AT MIDNIGHT
Last Line: A PARADE, A SUITE AT THE PLAZA, A NEW SILVER-PLATED REVOLVER.
Subject(s): CHANGE; DESIRE; DESPAIR;

I want a sign, a heraldic bird, or even an angel at midnight
or a plane ticket to Alexandria, a room full of good dreams.

This won't do; farmlife with chickens clucking in the barnyard,
lambs, cows, vicious horses kicking when I bite their necks.

The woman carved of ice was commissioned by certain unknown
parties and lasted into a March thaw, tits turning to water.

Phone call. That strange cowboy who pinned a button to the boy's
fly near the jukebox -- well last night he shot his mom.

Arrested, taken in as it were for having a purple fundament,
a brain full of grotesqueries, a mouth exploding with red lies.

Hops a plane to NYC riding on the wing through a thunderstorm,
a parade, a suite at the Plaza, a new silver-plated revolver.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net