Egg by C.G. Hanzlicek
““Why are you always whistling?” she asks. / “Because I’m happy.” / And it’s true, / Though it stuns me to say it aloud”
Mission by A.R. Ammons
"as if anything here belonged to you / as if anything here were your concern"
[Goldenrod, I could say, you know, everybody wants something] by Diane Seuss
"Goldenrod, is your dying hard? I know, / I know dying's hard. Are you reaching toward, you know, or just reaching?"
Afraid So by Jeanne Marie Beaumont
"Did the check bounce? / Are we out of coffee? / Is this going to hurt?"
When Your Life Looks Back by Jane Hirshfield
"Whatever direction you turned toward was face to face. / No back of the world existed, / No unseen corner, no test. No other earth to prepare for."
Turing Test by Franny Choi
"in order to contemplate lineage / you start with what you know / hands, hair, bones, sweat"
I Remember the Carrots by Ada Limón
"I loved them: my own bright dead things. / I’m thirty-five and remember all that I’ve done wrong."
Addendum by Diane Ackerman
"I've got lots of sensibility and no common sense; / isn't it better to lie low while the universe bombards
Clear Night by Charles Wright
"I want to be bruised by God. / I want to be strung up in a strong light and singled out. / I want to be stretched, like music wrung from a dropped seed."