this hasn’t worked, I fold.” >> — Mary Jo Salter
Wake
Here are the random couples bumping uglies,
And here, prayer circles squeezing hands;
Here are the children curled up in their snugglies,
And here, tuxedoed bands
Are sweating through their set-to-end-all-sets
Now that the news of the tsunami
Has been confirmed. God’s sent us his regrets
As global origami—
Sorry, my ducks, this hasn’t worked, I fold—
And now we grow enraged or grave
As we see fit, quaking before the cold
Wall of God’s final wave.
I dreamt all this, bedridden, wrung with heat.
Since I awoke, I can’t erase
The sight of God pulling that huge blue sheet
Over the world’s face.
Stephen Kampa holds a BA in English Literature from Carleton College and an MFA in Poetry from The Johns Hopkins University. His first book, Cracks in the Invisible, won the 2010 Hollis Summers Poetry Prize and the 2011 Gold Medal in Poetry from the Florida Book Awards. His second book, Bachelor Pad (2014 ), and his third, Articulate as Rain (2018), appeared from The Waywiser Press. Kampa has been playing harmonica for twenty years and was named the 2012 Florida Harmonica Championships Overall Champion. He has worked as the harmonica player for a variety of bands, including Robert “Top” Thomas & the Swamp Kings, Victor Wainwright & the WildRoots, and the Old Kings. His session work appears most recently on Wildroots Sessions, Vol. 1. He teaches English at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida.
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Author: The Best American Poetry
