Diego Isaias Hernández Méndez, Convertiendse en Characoteles / Sorcerers Changing into Their Animal Forms (detail), 2013, oil on canvas. Arte Maya Tz’utujil Collection.
Quaff
Notable the covert spring of anger trickling,
wending its way, and the road invigorating
below stands of sycamores, oaks. It was
a competition of playlists. I wanted the freest poem
in the world. So I complimented her brows
seeming to lift in intimate flight like a Truffaut scene,
which was catnip to her ears. The shifting
illuminations cast lines on the ceiling. Glug, glug—
those first nights came to us again. We pulled
onto the breakdown lane and drank deep.
Major Jackson is the Richard Dennis Green and Gold Professor at the University of Vermont. He is the author of three volumes of poetry: Leaving Saturn, Hoops, and this year’s Holding Company (W. W. Norton & Co.). (updated 4/2010)