Two poems by Lee Upton from “The Day Every Day Is”

Lee Upton  November 2022

POLITICAL AMBITION

 A pig swallowing an entire

apple tree

then sleeping under covers

Politics must be hard

You can’t step into

the same politics twice

I take off my boots

When I try to put them back on

they won’t let me

Politics is wearing them now

Politics can always step into a victim twice

Here’s Pharaoh

here’s a basket

and inside the basket

is the death of Pharaoh’s son.



MY FJORD

I will sail through my own fjord and I will name the fjord My Fjord.

I know it’s incorrect to say that the Vikings wore horned helmets,

but I will wear a horned helmet, for my job is to correct history.

I’ll leap over vats of mead and let libations drench my puffy skirt. 

(I like mead, but it’s amazing how refreshing milk directly from the cow can be.) 

And then I will sail on My Fjord plowing through every flaming

funeral.  Enough celebrations of victory over life. 

And who will stop my marauding?

For these are my violent decades,

and everyone everywhere from all time:

those are my own people.

from The Day Every Day Is by Lee Upton. Saturnalia Books

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Author: The Best American Poetry