Easy Targets for the Bourgeoisie

Matthew Rohrer

First published in Salt Hill 21 (2008).

In a small square room
in the terrible altered state
of Oklahoma, shame,
shame, it rains down
from the sprinklers

*

But the soul out the window
is just self-consciousness
of the birds, the wheeling
gulls in white air,
who scatter, before the jet

*

Where does it go?
It is a television show
switched off.
The whitewashed pavements
stand terribly still
beneath the clouds
when everyone’s gone

*

He was the vital part,
the energy of death,
the choking of it all
in mountain flowers.
The moon was down.
He touched my hand
but would not take it.

*

My heart explodes
an easy target
the whole nation
busies itself for war
at home
my friends do not
suppose that we
are losing
we are still as trees

Matthew Rohrer’s books of poetry include The Sky Contains the Plans (Wave Books, 2020), The Others (Wave Books, 2017), which was the winner of the 2017 Believer Book Award, and Surrounded by Friends (Wave Books, 2015). His first book, A Hummock in the Malookas was selected for the National Poetry Series by Mary Oliver in 1994. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches at NYU.

This poem and four others by Matthew Rohrer were published in Issue 21.