Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Yusef Komunyakaa

Anger

Anger

Anger

We can cut out Nemesis’s tongue
By omission or simple analysis.
Doesn’t this sin have to marry
Another, like a wishbone

Worked into meat, to grow
Deadly? Snared within
The blood’s quick night,
Our old gods made sex

& wit, of nitrate & titanium,
Hurl midnight thunderbolts
& lightning. Are we here
Because they must question

Every death in an alley,
Every meltdown? We know
We wouldn’t be much, if thorns
Didn’t drive light into wet blooms.
Close

Anger

We can cut out Nemesis’s tongue
By omission or simple analysis.
Doesn’t this sin have to marry
Another, like a wishbone

Worked into meat, to grow
Deadly? Snared within
The blood’s quick night,
Our old gods made sex

& wit, of nitrate & titanium,
Hurl midnight thunderbolts
& lightning. Are we here
Because they must question

Every death in an alley,
Every meltdown? We know
We wouldn’t be much, if thorns
Didn’t drive light into wet blooms.

Anger

Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Ludo Pieters Gastschrijver Fonds
Lira fonds
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère