Space, in Chains

Space, in Chains            

Books by Laura Kasischke   

POETRY

Space, in Chains

Lilies Without

Gardening in the Dark

Dance and Disappear

What It Wasn’t

Fire & Flower

Housekeeping in a Dream

Wild Brides

FICTION

Eden Springs

In a Perfect World

Be Mine

The Life before Her Eyes

White Bird in a Blizzard

Suspicious River

YOUNG ADULT FICTION

Feathered

Boy Heaven

LAURA KASISCHKE

Space, in Chains

Port Townsend, Washington

Copyright 2011 by Laura Kasischke

All rights reserved

Cover art: Mark Rothko,
Number 8,
1952. © 2010 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Copper Canyon Press is in residence at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend, Washington, under the auspices of Centrum. Centrum is a gathering place for artists and creative thinkers from around the world, students of all ages and backgrounds, and audiences seeking extraordinary cultural enrichment.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Kasischke, Laura, 1961–
Space, in chains / Laura Kasischke.

p.   cm.

ISBN 978-1-55659-333-8 (pbk.: alk. paper)
I. Title.
PS3561.A6993S63 2011
811´.54-dc22

2010040037

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 FIRST PRINTING

Copper Canyon Press
Post Office Box 271
Port Townsend, Washington 98368

www.coppercanyonpress.org

for Lucy & Jack

Flying swiftly past,

For a child I last forever,

For adults I’m gone too fast…

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to the Guggenheim Foundation for a fellowship that supported the completion of this book, as well as United States Artists for a generous USA Cummings Fellowship.

Thank you to the editors of the following publications, in which these poems originally appeared:

The Adirondack Review:
“Stolen shoes”

Boston Review:
“Mercy”

Chautauqua:
“My son makes a gesture my mother used to make”

Conduit:
“Cytoplasm, June”

Dunes Review:
“Dawn,” “Lunch,” “O elegant giant (These difficult matters)”

Field:
“Landscape with one of the earthworm’s ten hearts”

Gulf Coast:
“The key to the tower,” “Your headache”

Harvard Review:
“Abigor”

Hayden’s Ferry Review:
“Space, in chains”

The Iowa Review:
“The call of the one duck flying south,” “Song”

The Kenyon Review:
“At the public pool,” “My beautiful soul”

The Laurel Review:
“Animal, vegetable, mineral, mist”

Luna:
“You”

The Missouri Review:
“My father’s mansion”

Narrative:
“Atoms on loan,” “Life support,” “The photograph album in the junk shop,” “Tools and songs”

New American Writing:
“O elegant giant (And Jehovah)” (Reprinted in
The Pushcart Prize XXXIV)

New England Review:
“Almost there,” “Rain,” “Riddle (I am the mirror),” “Riddle (Most days),” “They say”

New Letters:
“Four Men” “Riddle (Mars, the moon)”

Poetry:
“After Ken Burns,” “Hospital parking lot, April,” “Look”

POOL:
“Recipe for disaster”

Puerto del Sol:
“The Pleasure Center”

Redivider:
“Forgiveness”

Salamander:
“Pharmacy,” “Receipt”

Smartish Pace:
“Dread”

The Southern Review:
“Memory of grief,” “My son practicing the violin,” “Swan logic,” “We watch my father try to put on his shirt”

TriQuarterly:
“Riddle (The bodies of the girls),” “The sweet by-and-by”

Willow Springs:
“Near misses”

When I came in my son said, “Mother, something has come down from Mars and the world is coming to an end.” I said, “Don’t be silly.” Then my husband said, “It is true.”

Bury deep

Pile on stones,

Yet I will

Dig up the bones.

What am I?

CONTENTS

One

O elegant giant

Riddle

Memory of grief

Song

Time

After Ken Burns

My beautiful soul

The photograph album in the junk shop

Landscape with one of the earthworm’s ten hearts

The inner workings

Hospital parking lot, April

View from glass door

July

Wasps

Dawn

Look

Rain

Peace

Pharmacy

Medical dream

Near misses

The key to the tower

Space, in chains

We watch my father try to put on his shirt

The call of the one duck flying south

Two

Your headache

Space, between humans & gods

Swan logic

Riddle

The drinking couple, similes

Your last day

O elegant giant

At the public pool

My son makes a gesture my mother used to make

Recipe for disaster

Atoms on loan

Dread

Wormwood