top of page
half3_purp.jpg

1 poem

by JoAnna Novak

JoAnna Novak is the author of the novel I Must Have You and the book-length poem Noirmania. Her work has appeared in publications including The Paris Review, The New York Times, the Washington Post, Salon, Guernica, and BOMB. She is a co-founder of the literary journal and chapbook publisher, Tammy

Drink

 

 

Body with dead heat, matted fur, abusive lair

 

Disarranged girlhood down the madder couch

 

When not far a glass drowns its pink-purple fanfare

           

Behind the screen an egg broke whitens the short road

 

You could carefree an aisle, you might call it an air

 

There were no blood-limits, just an origin in gauze

 

So run it, roll it, work it, raise it, boil off care

 

How much left of summer, when nothing ends in the end

 

Just a baby: so little to cry, so little to think

 

One never minds puking when the returns are so grand

bottom of page