| Two Poems by Jim Moore | ||
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Last Night at Dinner Someone who almost died sits next to me, someone I love. I smile and pass the noodles. No one can ever see all the way inside us. An orange light hovers over the clouded city, though it’s dark and has been for hours. As if somewhere a fire rages out of control, and we are its kindling. The fish we eat is firm, but sweet. The son of my friend charges a quarter for his father to enter his room: a bargain! There is a secret life inside us that knows the cost, that is willing to pay the price. At Night We Read Aloud The Aeneid But slowly. At this rate, Rome may never get built. Each night, the boat of our voices carries us towards our dreams on the dissolving tide of a world both strange and bloody. A world in which love does not matter, though our love makes of it a place where we can bear to live. __________________________________________________________________________ JIM MOORE lives in St.Paul, Minnesota with his wife, the photographer JoAnn Verburg. His most recent book, (click title of book) THE LONG EXPERIENCE OF LOVE, was published by Milkweed Editions in 1995. He teaches in the MFA program at Hamline University. "Last Night at Dinner" first appeared in The Kenyon Review, and "At Night We Read Aloud The Aeneid" first appeared in the Threepenny Review. |
