by Sam Ross ’13
Published by Four Way Books (2019)
Ross’s poems are at once earthy and delicate and view their subjects through a perceptive, picaresque lens.
“Bowers v. Hardwick” from Company
I’ve learned cause and effect.
I know because the parade-float
is outside my window, brass snorkels
catch the light of the sky like a bell.
There will be pieces of pink paper
in the street, and some will melt
after the day’s rain and some will burn
on into the night. How could it be otherwise?
I know we endured all the words—
and we must forget them for now,
as if they were skywriting, fading white.
Some urge us, some warn us not to transgress
what is deeply unspeakable.
But then, who am I going to talk to here?
Someone turn on the radio, someone
sing with me—please.
Or we can just spend a day
drawing dirty pictures of each other.
There’s time. Wasn’t it you
who promised me the music would last
all afternoon?