Stories of Young America
where are you going?
back there,
where the world becomes
a house of correction,
and drains fill with pastoral blood.
children will stray
to a region of ice
contemplating American adventure
where accomplishments stalk desires.
where have you been?
oh, it was a year of wonders
a summer of wild Saturdays,
happy onions,
silky boys and girls
i began again, and suddenly
my life was over
like a girl at the edge
of the ocean.
I wrote this variation on a found poem after finishing a book of short stories by Joyce Carol Oates. Her story titles are evocative, and I wanted to see what happened when I strung them together into a poem.
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