The Best American Poetry 2014 Read Free Page B

| It takes a while to sort it out | it kisses me goodbye. I’m dead. (Pause). | How absurd to still have a body
    CK: Shall we end there? With death? It is a tad depressing, I think.
    TH: We can end with the opposite of death. Something you said once: “I shall continue to exist. I may assume other disguises, other forms, but I shall try to exist.” It’s akin to the act and ambition of making poems—all Art-making. The desire to change as well as endure.
    CK: I am flattered. Let us end, then, with what this interview is not. What this is not, you realize, is your 182-page introduction decorated in graphs, poetic astrologies, recipes, explications, photos, theories on Art and Poetry and America. . . . You implied at the outset that introductions matter little. Doesn’t a bit of judgment improve, and if we are lucky, refine the mind? You might be cutting corners, Sir. Poetry like all Art demands a bit of selectivity.
    TH: I think I’ve been selective, Dr. Kinbote. The poems are here as proof. They are a gift to you whom I was thinking of all along the way. How you might, on an overcast day, criticize my choices. How you might, on a well-lit day, salute what I salute, and be transformed as I have been transformed.

SHERMAN ALEXIE
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Sonnet, with Pride

    Inspired by Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan & Niko Henrichon
    1. In 2003, during the Iraq War, a pride of lions escaped from the Baghdad Zoo during an American bombing raid. 2. Confused, injured, unexpectedly free, the lions roamed the streets searching for food and safety. 3. For just a moment, imagine yourself as an Iraqi living in Baghdad. You are running for cover as the U.S. bombers, like metal pterodactyls, roar overhead. You are running for cover as some of your fellow citizens, armed and angry, fire rifles, rocket launchers, and mortars into the sky. You are running for cover as people are dying all around you. It’s war, war, war. And then you turn a corner and see a pride of freaking lions advancing on you. 4. Now, imagine yourself as a lion that has never been on a hunt. That has never walked outside of a cage. That has been coddled and fed all of its life. And now your world is exploding all around you. It’s war, war, war. And then you turn a corner and see a pride of freaking tanks advancing on you. 5. It’s okay to laugh. It’s always okay to laugh at tragedy. If lions are capable of laughter, then I’m positive those Baghdad lions were laughing at their predicament. As they watched the city burn and collapse, I’m sure a lioness turned to a lion and said, “So do you still think you’re the King of the Jungle?” 6. I don’t know if the lions killed anybody as they roamed through the streets. 7. But I’d guess they were too afraid. I’m sure they could only see humans as zookeepers, not food. 8. In any case, the starving lions were eventually shot and killed by U.S. soldiers on patrol. 9. It’s a sad and terrible story, yes, but that is war. And war is everywhere. And everywhere, there are prides of starving lions wandering the streets. There are prides of starving lions wandering inside your hearts. 10. You might also think that I’m usingstarving lions as a metaphor for homeless folks, but I’m not. Homeless folks have been used far too often as targets for metaphors. I’m using those starving lions as a simple metaphor for hunger. All of our hunger. 11. Food-hunger. Love-hunger. Faith-hunger. Soul-hunger. 12. Who among us has not been hungry? Who among us has not been vulnerable? Who among us has not been a starving lion? Who among us has not been a prey animal? Who among us has not been a predator? 13. They say God created humans in God’s image. But what if God also created lions in God’s image? What if God created hunger in God’s image? What if God is hunger? Tell me, how do you pray to hunger? How do you ask for hunger’s blessing? How