World Enough, And Time |
Issue 11
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I.
With neither world enough nor time Let’s thumb our noses at them both, Pack a few carry-on’s and fly Around the globe and cross the centuries From Constantinople to Cathay, From ancient Illyria to bustling Pompeii. We’ll just go, for neither coy Nor any longer young are you, And in truth we have far less world And time than Marvell and his mistress did, More reason still for us to tear Our pleasures plumb through until we reach That final private place, where our Marvell Aptly says, none do embrace. II. So let’s make our next ten years Ten centuries of spontaneous embraces: Defiant, we’ll curse nature’s state And concoct our own time, where time Has no measure, which will bequeath to us More than a world enough, so that the time That eats at us we with our ravenous Appetites shall eat alive. And as for that hurrying, harrowing sun, Before he sees us coming we’ll strike That fucker dumb, in the name of God I swear we’ll make him run. III. Long ago each of us learned To put away our childish things, And afterwards both lived the years Of our mature, domestic selves. But now, here we are, green again, Admitting a few mistakes, but knowing That those we became good parents with We grew distant from too, and loved no more. So let us make the case for youth, But layered with the wisdom of our years, A boy and girl in love again but blessed With the curse and gift of love’s experience. Let’s go then, and take our chances as the clock Ticks away. The sun awaits: let’s play. IV. But what is time, that it can count down Our days? Why does each setting Of our sun subtract us hour by hour? Need it be so? Not that we Have any say. Still, there is will, To defy that sun, realizing that While we will make him run, At race’s end we’ll be undone. So, knowing that we cannot win, I ask you, as our days evaporate, Will you be my girl, as the centuries Unfurl? You know what I mean: my girl, Ever young, even after our memories Go, and after, when we turn to dust. |
MARC MANGANARO is a university administrator and author who has written books published by Princeton University Press and Yale University Press, and his work has appeared in journals such as The Missouri Review, Public Culture, and The Yale Journal of Criticism. Recent poems of his have been showcased in Poetry Pacific, Modern Literature, and Poetry Breakfast. He is a former recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, and some years ago served as Editor-in-Chief of The Carolina Quarterly. A native of Nebraska, he now calls New Orleans home.
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