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 Contents | September 2002 More on poetry from The Atlantic Monthly. |
Elegies
The Reunification Center by D. Nurkse .....  Hear D. Nurkse read this poem (in RealAudio)The Reunification Center We brought pictures of the missing, held gingerly, by the cropped margins, as if the eyes were scalding; or food: steaming casseroles without ladles, though the night was mild; Evian; M&M's, which we tried to hand out in that cordoned-off street where an ambulance chugged empty. And each stranger refused, a little pained, no, no, I'm here to help; we offered aspirin, stock certificates, a child's rocking horse, a teddy bear with an empty eye socket, but no one consented to receive that treasure. A doctor ashen with fatigue shouted into a cell phone, shaking it when it didn't answer; a digger dozed hugging his shovel; a survivor, mesmerized by the portraits, stunned at their beauty, compared them scar by scar with the faces of the living.
D. Nurkse is the author of seven books of verse, including The Rules of Paradise (2001) and The Fall (2002). Copyright © 2002 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved. The Atlantic Monthly; September 2002; The Reunification Center; Volume 290, No. 2; 103. |
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