the night begins with sugar
Natasha Saje
Salt Lake City
here in our state of yes and smug
crystalline over mountains and horizon melt
such pretty clouds such drifting light
who is it enough for what kind of person
lives in this sweetness this clear
beauty and does not utter a single oh or no
or even I my hand clapped over my mouth my tongue caught by
what’s left in the right hand the dominant and clenched
what’s right in the left hand easily tossed
catching instead malaise a coma of indifference
swirling in our stunning vestibule
mourning the self just getting by
in a theocracy of pretense and defense
here in my state of smog and so what
About this poem
“This poem explores the disengagement of my civic-environmental voice in a gerrymandered state. The vestibule refers to the third canto of the ‘Inferno,’ the place for those who wouldn’t take a stand.”
– Natasha Saje
About Natasha Saje
Natasha Saje is the author of “Vivarium” (Tupelo Press, 2014). She teaches at Westminster College in Salt Lake City and in the Vermont College of Fine Arts M.F.A. program.
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) 2015 Natasha Saje. Originally published by the Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
