Table of Contents
I The Coming Storm
In Hemp-Woven Hammocks Reading the Nation 3
Exsanguination 4
Little Albert, 1920 5
Harlow's Monkeys 10
Obedience: 1962 15
Loney 19
The Coming Storm 22
Edward Hopper's "Eleven A.M.," 1926 24
II The First Room
The First Room 33
Sinkholes 34
That Other 35
The Mercy 36
The Blessing 37
This Is not a Poem 38
Apocalypso 40
III American Melancholy
To Marlon Brando in Hell 45
Too Young to Marry But Not Too Young to Die 52
Doctor Help Me 57
Old America Has Come Home to Die 62
Jubilate: An Homage in Catterel Verse 67
Kite Poem 76
American Sign Language 77
Hometown Waiting For You 79
IV "This is the Time …"
Hatefugue 85
A Dream of Stopped-Up Drains 87
Bloodline, Elegy 92
Harvesting Skin 96
This is the Time for Which We Have Been Waiting" 100
The Tunnel 103
Palliative 107
Acknowledgments 111