April 20: Give Me This
Martha
Give Me This
Ada Limón
I thought it was the neighbor’s cat back
to clean the clock of the fledgling robins low
in their nest stuck in the dense hedge by the house
but what came was much stranger, a liquidity
moving all muscle and bristle. A groundhog
slippery and waddle thieving my tomatoes still
green in the morning’s shade. I watched her
munch and stand on her haunches taking such
pleasure in the watery bites. Why am I not allowed
delight? A stranger writes to request my thoughts
on suffering. Barbed wire pulled out of the mouth,
as if demanding that I kneel to the trap of coiled
spikes used in warfare and fencing. Instead,
I watch the groundhog closer and a sound escapes
me, a small spasm of joy I did not imagine
when I woke. She is a funny creature and earnest,
and she is doing what she can to survive.
----
More animals:
+ Toad, Norman MacCaig
+ The Fox, Faith Shearin
+ A Blessing, James Wright
+ No, Mark Doty
More Ada Limón <3:
Dead Stars // What I Didn't Know Before // Instructions on Not Giving Up // Overjoyed // Before // The Conditional // The Problem with Travel
Still hungry?
2025: Poem in the Shape of the Poet Beating Henry Kissinger to Death with Their Bare Hands, Felix Lecocq
2024: blessing the boats, Lucille Clifton
2023: Wound is the Origin of Wonder, Maya C. Popa
2022: When the Fox Comes to the City, Patricia Fargnoli
2021: aubade for the whole hood, Nate Marshall
2020: Keeping Things Whole, Mark Strand
2019: New Year’s Day, Kim Addonizio
2018: I Know You Think I’ve Forgotten, Jane Hirshfield
2017: The Writer, Richard Wilbur
2016: from Seven Skins, Adrienne Rich
2015: I Ask Percy How I Should Live My Life, Mary Oliver
2014: In the Park, Maxine Kumin
2013: To A Sad Daughter, Michael Ondaatje
2012: My Dead Friends, Marie Howe
2011: Staying After, Linda Gregg
2010: Dream Song 14, John Berryman
2009: What We Kept, Megan Alpert
2008: Please Take Back the Sparrows, Suzanne Buffam
2007: It Happens Like This, James Tate
2006: Tantalus in May, Reginald Shepherd
2005: September Song, Geoffrey Hill