M A Y 1 9 9 9 ![]() IN THE TUBEby Mark Jarman | |||||||||||||
![]() (For help, see a note about the audio.) Also by Mark Jarman: Psalm (1997) Go to: An Audible Anthology Poetry Pages |
They beat the edge Of the dawn light, The pearly pre-glow Right at their heels, The three boys Carrying the fourth Rolled in a sheet. They all had taken Something the night Before in a beach House and this one Drowned in his sleep. They acted quickly, These instinctive Athletes who cross The faces of tons Of crushing water Which refrain From curling over And burying them Alive because they Are nimble, quick, Tuned to the wit Of their survivors' Bodies. They hurried From the running car And laid their friend Like a Sunday paper On his parents' doorstep, And drove off to The place where the sharp New light would comb through The wave crests and they Would ride below them, Dodging the onrush. Mark Jarman teaches English literature program at Vanderbilt University. His most recent collection of poems, Questions for Ecclesiastes (1997), was awarded the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize in 1998. Copyright © 1999 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved. The Atlantic Monthly; May 1999; In the Tube; Volume 283, No. 5; page 100. |
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