Mottled Tuesday

John Ashbery

 
Something was about to go laughably wrong,
whether directly at home or here,
on this random shoal pleading with its eyes
till it too breaks loose, caught in a hail of references.
I’ll add one more scoop
to the pile of retail.
Hey, you’re doing it, like I didn’t tell you
to, my sinking laundry boat, point of departure,
my white pomegranate, my swizzle stick.
We’re leaving again of our own volition
for bogus patterned plains streaked by canals,
maybe. Amorous ghosts will pursue us
for a time, but sometimes they get, you know, confused and
forget to stop when we do, as they continue to populate this
fertile land with their own bizarre self-imaginings.
Here’s hoping the referral goes tidily, O brother.
Chime authoritatively with the pop-ups and extras.
Keep your units pliable and folded,
the recourse a mere specter, like you have it coming to you,
awash with the new day and its abominable antithesis,
OK? Don’t be able to make that distinction.
 
From A Worldly Country by John Ashbery. Copyright © 2007 by John Ashbery. Published by arrangement with Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Poems by This Author

Alcove by John Ashbery
Is it possible that spring could be
At North Farm by John Ashbery
Bells II by John Ashbery
For just as a misunderstanding germinates
Daffy Duck In Hollywood by John Ashbery
Something strange is creeping across me.
Elective Infinities by John Ashbery
Thirsty? They race across ampersands
Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape by John Ashbery
The first of the undecoded messages read: "Popeye sits in thunder,
For John Clare by John Ashbery
Kind of empty in the way it sees everything, the earth gets to its
Instead of Losing by John Ashbery
Anyone, growing up in a space you hadn't used yet
Into the Dusk-Charged Air by John Ashbery
Far from the Rappahannock, the silent
Love in Boots by John Ashbery
Our first assignment was to make a square
Meaningful Love by John Ashbery
What the bad news was
My Philosophy of Life by John Ashbery
Just when I thought there wasn't room enough
Robin Hood's Barn by John Ashbery
Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror [MS excerpt] by John Ashbery
Some Trees by John Ashbery
These are amazing: each
Syringa by John Ashbery
Orpheus liked the glad personal quality
The New Higher by John Ashbery
You meant more than life to me. I lived through
The Plural of Jack-in-the-Box by John Ashbery
How quiet the diversion stands


Further Reading

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