and he in you,
And to you that it.
and he you
And you that it.
And he.
And that it.
He.
And it of
He
it of the he
it
CAN SAID YOUR WHEN
After Mac Wellman
Who: "Her" & "Him"
When: Day
[Come in]
Her: Is you that it?
Him: Is. Did is. With they I when can for people.
Her: About other, then? Like I when said?
Him: Like make into time go many we.
Her: More other…—take good know? Had from if by go take then?
Him: Use some.
Her: Use?
Him: Did come, more of your which make. For out with his they could by then. So??!
Her: Will up.
Him: [a look]
Her: I will up your see there…if how. Go out it. His with and if there look you and look you by; that it was for on! On. On people.
Him: Who said that many work? See other? Would make like her would look if…how. Way even!
Her: Work two more like other. One had by these.
Him: Is. Is.
Her: [a look, then] Not what out other did!
Him: Say which had by take now and get all can out. Come them if will: I been look other by.
Her: You…you come go think see look and…out it. Now. My like be this all now.... Is not.
Him: Is.
Her: What? Were we them when have had by not want?
Him: For each but?
Her: My made are way to of to just do into we now. About were it....? You—want on.
Him: One is.
Her: Did way not.
Him: Come now be this have his and do it.
Her: Say know.
Him: Say? She do. She do how their if will up. People even come and had it with work. Make like see some, do out it, and out all of it. Be you? [a look or two] You other, you time out, you make day think and see out these people. All the time. All.
Her: What not come.... What not come is most when said.
[Go out]
JUST BECAUSE THEY WANT TO
People only think because they want to
and you do not want to
look I also want to come all day
and only think "it’s all good"
but I know how to use the day
first I work
and you could say it’s just
because I only work
but I like to think about
what time will do with us
when it’s over
that is work
to think about that all day
that is what I do
then I like to get up there
and look into what people know
some good, some so-so
and after that I think I could do it also
and I think about what if
you back into me
how that would be good also
FIRST BY DAY
People think back over into people.
I just if I what I be come
from time to time. No like-time out
of which we think the days. Now who
so whats into my only year. You.
What up and out. New wants first way.
An other first. You come back after time to make
work. A would that will take back wants.
A year to take time as a year. Come by
to see who gets which what.
You give most even in what you have, which is
no good. Look how I know you.
Make me a new look.
Want is first by day, two if by see.
How to just if I an or me.
HOW
Saw this day,
most of us looking
mostly up, people
wanting people.
Saw the I
be of two woulds.
Saw the known
say make me.
Saw time
making like time,
all there is
given back new.
Saw if not
for all the having,
all the thinking,
a new how.
I’ll come over
and look for you.
That could
be good.
_
Our which art in be:
come will be done in
as it is. Give us
this day our and,
our us as we,
our and not into us
but from us is for
the and the and the.
WHAT PEOPLE WANT
So what do people want? Don’t know.
Well, what do people SAY they want? They say they want to work all day.
They say they want to take the time
to make it good and do it well.
Is that what people want? Don’t know.
Well, what do people HAVE to want? They have to want to look as good
as they can look, and get the most
they can, and also work all day.
Is that what people want? Don’t know.
Well, what do people WANT to want? They want to want to give some back,
to look out for the other first
of all, and also work all day.
But what do people want? They want
what they don’t have. What COULD they want? It could be they could come to want
to work all day for what is just.
So what is just? Just is no want.
BECAUSE PEOPLE COULD SEE
Most of us work well when we get no time
Time is over then we say what good was there?
Do what you know, which is how a day comes over us
I say get on with the year and come out when you can
Even if you think he wants to be with you
Some people go with me when I have my way
Some people get their way by making up a use for me
He said he could see me in there when he looked for her
(Now say what I just said to get him good—
Then say some of what you know of me)
Because we were not who we wanted, not ever
So if he says give in to my will, we are not even
Even if you think you got done over after me
You are not who you say you want to be
because they who want a year will get just one good day.
because they who want many people will have just us.
because they who want to say so will just say so.
because they who want to look back will just know.
because they who want to think it over will just go.
because they who want to be new will just be.
To come ...
Jenny Browne is a former James Michener Fellow in Poetry at the University of Texas. She is the author of the chapbook, Glass, and two full collections, At Once, and The Second Reason. Her poems have been recently published or are forthcoming from American Poetry Review, AGNI Online, Bat City Review and Gulf Coast. She lives in downtown San Antonio and teaches at Trinity University.
Jeff Dolven teaches English at Princeton University. His poems have appeared in the Paris Review, the TLS, the Yale Review, and elsewhere, and he is a co-organizer of Cabinet Magazine's Poetry Lab in Brooklyn.
Timothy Liu is the author of eight books of poems, most recently Polytheogamy and Bending the Mind Around the Dream's Blown Fuse. He lives in Manhattan.
Laura Mullen is a Professor at Louisiana State University. She is the author of three collections of poetry—The Surface, After I Was Dead, and Subject—and two hybrid texts, The Tales of Horror (Kelsey Street Press 1999), and Murmur (futurepoem books 2007). Prizes for her poetry include Ironwood’s Stanford Prize, and she has been awarded a Board of Regents ATLAS grant, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Rona Jaffe Award, among other honors. She has had several MacDowell Fellowships and is a frequent visitor at the Summer Writing Program at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa. Her poems have been widely anthologized and have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Octopus, 1913, Bomb, Hotel Amerika, the Corpse, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. Her work is included in American Hybrid, just out from Norton. Recent prose has been collected in Civil Disobediences: Poetics & Politics in Action, and in other anthologies, and the Denver Quarterly recently published her essay on the poetry of John Yau. Jason Eckardt’s setting of “The Distance (This)” (from Subject) premiered at the Miller Theater in New York and was performed at the Musica Nova festival in Helsinki. She was invited to participate in the Taipei International Poetry Festival in 2009.
Matthew Rohrer is the author of They All Seemed Asleep (2008), Rise Up (2007) and A Green Light (2004), which was shortlisted for the 2005 Griffin International Poetry Prize. He is also the author of Satellite (2001), Nice Hat. Thanks (2002, with Joshua Beckman) and A Hummock in the Malookas (W.W. Norton, 1994), a winner of the National Poetry Series. He is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a Hopwood Award for Poetry and an M.F.A from the University of Iowa
Wendy S. Walters’ work resides at the intersection of the poem, essay and lyric drama. She is the author of Longer I Wait, More You Love Me (2009) and a chapbook, Birds of Los Angeles (2005), both published by Palm Press (Long Beach, CA). Walters’ poetry has been recognized with residency fellowships from Breadloaf, MacDowell and Yaddo, and her poems have recently appeared in Callaloo, HOW2, Natural Bridge, Seneca Review and the Yalobusha Review, among several others. Her lyric and personal essays have been published or are forthcoming in Seneca Review, Seattle Review, and Harper’s Magazine.
Laura Wetherington is a graduate of the University of Michigan's MFA program, and UC Berkeley's Undergraduate English Department. She has poems published in Bombay Gin, 21 Stars Review, Starfish Poetry, and Verse. She teaches at the New England Literature Program and co-edits the online journal textsound. When not thinking about poetry, she is thinking about the mysteries of living in a body.