Portrait of a 23-year-old Baudelaire, painted in 1844 by Émile Deroy (1820–1846)
Nomads
A tribe of prophets
moves through the mist
carrying a bit of money
and little kids on their backs,
kids with enormous appetites.
The men are barefoot, Felix,
just like me and their weapons
are long, just like mine.
The mist pulls their wagons
as they pass me, singing,
breaking the desert stones
open with their notes.
They move beyond
the stones full of water.
Our futures, so familiar.
Sandra Simonds is the author of eight books books of poetry, most recently: Triptychs (forthcoming Wave Books, November 2022), Atopia (Wesleyan University Press, 2019), Orlando, (Wave Books, 2018), and Further Problems with Pleasure, winner of the 2015 Akron Poetry Prize, 2009). Her poems and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Best American Poetry, Poetry, and elsewhere. She is an Associate professor of English and Humanities at Thomas University in Thomasville, Georgia. Find out more about Sandra here.
Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) was a French poet, essayist, art critic, and translator of Edgar Allan Poe.
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Author: The Best American Poetry
