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.
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. .
Unfortunately, I enjoy blasphemy. / My nightmares will kill me before God does. / What is a nightmare but what God does / to the trees, hiding paper in their pith?