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"Consciousness"
Click the arrow on the audio player to hear Ellen Wehle read this poem. You can also download the recording or subscribe to Slate's Poetry Podcast on iTunes.
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Sack of rocks we drag.
Telescope dish turning.
Engine-hum in back
Alleys where all night
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Trucks idle their load,
Whomever the Devil
Would destroy … how
Does that saying go?
Can we not silence
It even half an hour:
Slip off our headset,
Forget the last ship's
Tinny SOS, break out
Champagne and party.
Palace of a thousand
Lamps left burning
Far below the waves.
… he first makes wise.
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