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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eileen Myles

Dennis Cooper describes Myles as "one of the savviest and most restless intellects in contemporary literature." Holland Cotter names Myles as "a cult figure to a generation of post-punk female writer-performers."...
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	FURTHER READING


		Poems about Historical Events
		Artificer by Czeslaw Milosz

		Indian Stream Republic by Stephen Burt

		Longing to Commodious by Rob Halpern

		Matriot Acts, Act I [History of Mankind] by Anne Waldman

		Occasioned by General Washington's Arrival in Philadelphia, On His Way to His Residence in Virginia by Philip Freneau

		Oklahoma City: The Aftermath by Ira Sadoff

		On Seeing Larry Rivers' Washington Crossing the Delaware at the Museum of Modern Art by Frank O'Hara

		On the Day of Nixon's Funeral by Ira Sadoff

		Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

		Rouen, Place de la Pucelle by Maria White Lowell

		Shirt by Robert Pinsky

		Suicide of a Moderate Dictator by Elizabeth Bishop

		The Present Crisis by James Russell Lowell

		Wave by David Keplinger

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William Dawes

by Eileen Myles

faint tinkling down the street
moved me from Swan
to Mass Ave
the skinny men running
into Boston. Why

I don’t know. Let’s go
to town hall
giant horses
Paul Revere & William
Dawes and horses
hairy poop lands
splat on the brick. Get em to sign
your program. It’s not
even really Paul Revere
I went to the other
guy he signed William
Dawes was there really
a him he signed all antiquey
I think it’s in my trunk
and horses went down the street
again after the runners
I don’t even think they
live here. They run all the way
into Boston. Why

little babies dying

man’s and people losing
their leg you live in the world
now in history it’s true
is not a fake.

About this poem:

"The bombing in Boston triggered a memory of the estrangement/fascination I felt as a kid about the marathon & the accompanying reenactment of Paul Revere’s ride on that day. And the death of Martin from Dorchester made me think of all the killed babies of the world, everyone."

Eileen Myles

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