"Descent"
after Apollinaire
Click
I was born a bastard in an amphetamine spree, lit through with a mother's quickenings,
and I burrowed into her, afraid she would not have me,
and she would not have me,
I dropped out down below the knees
of a rickrack halterdress,
sheeted, tented knees, water breaking, linoleum peeling,
and no one there to see but me,
I woke on the floor as if meant to
put her back together, to try to hold on to her
like a crate to a river, as if I'd been shipped down
to stand straight while in the misgiving
she said I had a dream of thirty-six sticks
floating down a river and a dog who couldn't swim
and I could not swim, I slipped from her grip
in a room where two orange cats stared like tidy strangers
at a world of larger strangeness,
and I had no name. I was there at her breast
Meghan O'Rourke is Slate's culture critic and an advisory editor. She was previouisly an editor at The New Yorker. She is the author of Halflife, a book of poems.
For Slate's poetry submission guidelines, click spacerhereyeshyperlinkPoetry SubmissionsSlate reads new poems from Oct. 1 to April 30. Manuscripts sent between May 1 and Sept. 30 will not be considered.To submit poems: Send, as a single attached document, up to three poems of no more than 50 lines each to editors@slatepoems.com. Use the poet's name for the subject line of the e-mail and for the title of the attachment. We prefer Word documents (.doc or .docx) to PDFs.Please include a brief, professional cover letter, including publication history, in the body of your email. Please limit submissions to one per poet per annual reading period. Simultaneous submissions are OK. Slate no longer accepts poetry submissions by mail. The email address editors@slatepoems.com is for poetry submissions only (or to notify editors of acceptance elsewhere of a poem under consideration at Slate). Other inquiries, etc., will not be addressed.10000false220061444537PMWednesdayJanJanuary161/4/2006 9:45:37 PM63271989937000000020061444537PMWednesdayJanJanuary161/4/2006 9:45:37 PM632719899370000000.Clickhere to visit Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poem Project site.