Death and the City
Published in Poem Of The Day
Yesterday's newspaper becomes last week's
Newspapers spread out like a hand-held fan
In front of the face of the apartment
Door. A dog does the Argos-thing inside,
Waiting beside O as though his body
Is but an Ithaca waiting the soul's
Return. Neil the Super will soon come up
With the key but only in time to find
Doreen, the on-the-down-low-friend-with-perks,
There already, kneeling between the two,
Stroking the hair of both O and the dog,
Wondering who had been walking the dog.
About this poem
"Proximity, and the paradox of the indifference that often accompanies it, is at the heart of city living. The signs of life, the signs of death, the signs of care and of indifference, these are ancient parts of us that living in apartments justify in one way or another."
-Rowan Ricardo Phillips
About Rowan Ricardo Phillips
Rowan Ricardo Phillips is the author of "Heaven" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015). He teaches at Stony Brook University and lives in New York City.
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The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day[at]poets.org.
(c) 2015 Rowan Ricardo Phillips. Originally published by the Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate
