I don’t want to be the cardinal
on which the revolution hangs,
that brightens the winter tree.
I want sufficient sun
to watch shadows change.
I want to turn away from death
and live it another way,
aloft, my guts
metaphorizing pleasure
as I bake my grief above.
Tired oven mind.
The calrods swerve
a dismal sun. Do not put my name
in the essay on the cult of ends.
I will miss our words when we’re gone.
Jennifer Nelson is the author most recently of Harm Eden (Ugly Duckling Presse), as well as of Civilization Makes Me Lonely (Ahsahta) and Aim at the Centaur Stealing Your Wife (UDP). She is also an art historian teaching at UW-Madison and the author of Disharmony of the Spheres: The Europe of Holbein's Ambassadors (Penn State UP).
April 2022
Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.
Our galleries are open Tuesday through Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday noon to 5pm, and other programs take place throughout the week. Please check the events calendar and education section for details.