#MIDDLEBURY
Divine Overdose
Matthew Rohrer
We are even more modern
we are free
not to know
pining pining
til the trees are in
their autumn beauty
who knows why
we are free
an LP of poetry
left on in the apartment
while I walk my love
to the subway
she turns to gold
in the light banking off
the ball-fields
and to have to think
of that small
pale body asleep
I return I take the stairs
3 at a time
and now my heart is sore
About this poem
“I fear that some of you will turn your heads away from this poem as from an unpleasant smell on the subway, when it is revealed to you that two lines are borrowed from Yeats’ ‘The Wild Swans at Coole.’ And I got the title from a student’s paper: His name is Divine and his assignment was called ‘Overdose,’ and when I wrote that down as the subject heading, I liked it. The ‘LP of poetry’ is the new Eileen Myles LP, which I keep listening to.” – Matthew Rohrer
About Matthew Rohrer
Matthew Rohrer is the author of “Surrounded by Friends” (Wave Books, 2015). He teaches at New York University and lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day@poets.org.
(c) 2016 Matthew Rohrer. Originally published in Poem-a-Day, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
