A review by lifeinpoetry
Only by Rebecca Foust

4.0

A monster. Picasso’s vexed mirror. O God,

how will you judge the quick and the dead
when the dead include this child for a martyr?
Can you really still look and say it is good?
The monster and the mirror—it’s all you, God.

(from “Guernica”)

—

You made me while I made you; nothing is owed. I came
to the canyon rim and saw

how best to carry you: I let the stone go.

(from “Echo”)

—

It’s 52 o’clock & the Project of You
has begun anew: quit drinking
again, start jogging. Floss. Get a clue
about what-it-all-means, what you
mean to do. Wake before noon
now & then. Mend the broken yolk
of your mind; bail its sunk boat.
Meditate. And for God’s sake, eat
more fruit. See the dentist & proctologist;
have some fun. Commit at least one
unoriginal sin (with a condom, please,
& without a gun). Go to the barn, burn
it down, burn the day. Then you can
see the moon, without yourself in the way.

("Self-Improvement")