Each day from January 7 to January 20, Rumpus Original Poems will feature poetry written in response to the coming presidential inauguration. Today's poem is from Kaveh Akbar.
I can’t recall a single time that my father has told me about his journey through the mountains . . . It was just something that I picked up, some truth that I have always carried.
" . . . I’m pretending to be a student for the sake of a thought experiment I’m trying to disguise as a story so it has a better chance of getting read. Also, I look young."
Fortinbras felt so good / the way he came after everyone was dead / with an army, and their complexes were dead / dead, dead, but still soft, the flush / just barely drained from of their cheeks,
& yes, my family did raise me right. Yes, / they cleaned their bones & cracked them clean / open to suck. Would fight over cartilage & knuckle/Sip the marrow’s nectar from urn. .