Throw Yourself into the Prairie. Francesca Chabrier
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THROW YOURSELF INTO THE PRAIRIE
© 2014 by Francesca Chabrier
FIRST EDITION
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher. Please direct inquiries to:
Managing Editor
Sarabande Books, Inc.
2234 Dundee Road, Suite 200
Louisville, KY 40205
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chabrier, Francesca, 1983–
[Poems. Selections]
Throw yourself into the prairie : poems / Francesca Chabrier.—First edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-936747-73-3
I. Title.
PS3603.H28T57 2014
811'.6—dc23
2013011706
Cover image by Emily Hunt.
Cover and text design by Kirkby Gann Tittle.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Sarabande Books is a nonprofit literary organization.
| The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, supportsSarabande Books with state tax dollars and federal fundingfrom the National Endowment for the Arts. |
for my friends and my family
CONTENTS
Peach Some Laid Their Hands On
Cheek Against Soft Pumpkin Fur
The World Has Turned and Left Me Here
September
Chapter Two
The End of the Lonesome Era
Gerard
Coffee Makes People Smart
Instructions on How To
Bad Night, Good Morning
When I Look Up and See / I Am Walking
Chapter Three
The Beautiful Poem
Chapter Four
*
Low
I Will Break the Silence in Holland Appaloosa
An Announcement
I Will See You Outside/ A Little Heap
Poem for Pittsburgh
Chapter Five
The Axioms
Chapter Six
This is About
In the Valley on a Hill
Leave of Absence
Countdown to Summer
Things Often Happen Strangely
Pretty Young Thing
Milk Bottle Poem
Chapter Seven
The Blizzard
Epilogue
Lay Fallen
Acknowledgments
PEACH SOME LAID THEIR HANDS ON
Peach some laid their hands on and they fell off.
An afternoon meal of peaches.
A cloud does not dapple the sky: they are in touch
the peach in the heat
and the slow-moving hands.
A litter of peaches squished
and one peeling itself in the shade.
I am who loves it here.
I eat a peach with my whole mouth
and can see everything.
Peach is French for a feeling
like be still be exactly still.
There is a popular tree
that lives year round.
Maybe it will live forever
who knows
there is no one
that can touch it.
People come
from all around
to see the popular tree.
It holds a nest
made out of gloves.
I should say that the tree
is not gigantic. It is
about as big as a man
of average size
without a head
or shoulders.
The tree is
so incredible that
when I walk up to it,
my legs shake.