Dorothea Lasky

Dorothea Lasky (1978-present) was born in St. Louis Missouri where she also received her BA in classics and psychology at Washington University in St. Louis. She received an MFA in poetry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, an EdM from Harvard University, and an EdD from the University of Pennsylvania. She has published four poetry collections and is currently an Associate Professor of poetry at Columbia University. Source

The Start Of The Free And Natural

Dear friend you have a problem and it’s called yourself

Dear self you have a problem and it’s called yourself

Dear swamp demon you stole from me

Dear sky you have a night

The stars they go

Dear sun you have a problem and it’s the light

Dear night you have a problem

I can’t see anyone except the red music box

Dear love you see too much

I went to the wooden lake

I saw the wooden people

I took one out

It was a boy

It was wood and did not breathe

It had its wood hair grain

In a static wave

I breathed life into it

Its eyelids finally swung open

I told it it was once a tree

I laid it down I picked it up

Out its eyes came the clear liquid

But not tears, just humor

Just plastic utterances

Out its mouth came the words

But it wasn’t alive yet

The stars in its absence, X-ed out

The middle sun, it shone

But only for me

Out your sink the bitter flowers

Oh, they have bloomed in the sewer

And the sewer flowers are jealous

Of what of what

How dare you ask

Obviously

The air

Published:

2018

Length:

Regular

Literary Movements:

Contemporary

Anthology Years:

2020

Themes:

Friendship

Identity

Mental Health