ANWR
When we are out of gas,
a headache haloes the roof,
darkening the skin of everyone who has a full tank.
I was told that the nectar of shoelaces,
if squeezed hard enough,
turns to water and trickles from the caribou’s snout.
A glacier nibbled from its center
spiders a story of the Southern Cross,
twin brothers
dancing in the back room lit with cigarettes
break through the drum’s soft skin—
There bone faces atlas
a grieving century.
Copyright Credit: Sherwin Bitsui, “ANWR” from Shapeshift. Copyright © 2003 by Sherwin Bitsui. Reprinted by permission of University of Arizona Press. This material is protected from unauthorized downloading and distribiution.
Source: Shapeshift (The University of Arizona Press, 2003)