The world, the world. We say, by Larry Thacker

What in the world? Indeed. What

within the mighty guts of its insides

would swirl in such a manner,

stage up such terribleness,

such vile broken bones and fever,

before granting understanding

a chance to live out in sweet fields?

Is this where we send our sins,

down

and inward, heat seeking a cleansing,

where new words boil in the night ground?

So the lakes can cool where fair animals speak

and dance the old tales, before

a need to only whisper takes over?

The best watchers watch with an eye

open in sleep. Where some retreated

and feared returning might summon up,

the words remaining heated,

one waiting beside the few

hoisting each other upright

and moving west with the sun.

The world. The world, we say, whips round

in our sleep like a bad dream we must suffer.

Larry D. Thacker’s poetry is in over one-hundred-and-fifty publications including Spillway, Still: The Journal, Valparaiso Poetry Review, American Journal of Poetry, Poetry South, The Southern Poetry Anthology, The Lake, Illuminations Literary Magazine, and Appalachian Heritage. His books include Mountain Mysteries, and the poetry books, Drifting in Awe, Voice Hunting, Memory Train, Grave Robber Confessional, and the forthcoming Feasts of Evasion. His MFA in poetry and fiction is earned from West Virginia Wesleyan College.

return to sampler return to poetry home