Sign in  |  Register

The New Criterion

The New Criterion is probably more consistently worth reading than any other magazine in English.
- The Times Literary Supplement

Poems

September 2006

City album: a wet afternoon

by Brad Leithauser

I. Dorm Room

Theirs is that special condition of plenty
  available only to those with nothing
    on or between them. It’s as if they’d been
  out in the downpour, bodies wet as
    that—but they’ve stayed in all day. Again
  he studies her nape, fingertip-tests her hip.
He thinks her very young. Eighteen. He’s twenty.

II. Basement Lab

The entomologist drops into a pool of light to peer
  at the magnified maxillae of a rare beetle
    while something lackluster raps the dusty pane
  above her head, a passing fluster of drops
    hardly worth speaking of as rain;
  she bagged this firebrand, Pyrophorus ignitus,
on a slope that catches two hundred inches a year.

III. Rect ...

This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchase

Subscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions)

Subscribe to TNC (Online only)

Purchase article credit and clip this article

If you already have an account login first

Brad Leithauser's most recent book is The Art Student's War.


more from this author

This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 25 September 2006, on page 73

Copyright © 2012 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/City-album--a-wet-afternoon-2460
rate this article for your user profile

E-mail to friend


The New Criterion

By the author

You might also enjoy

Most popular

view more >

The New Criterion is now optimized for Mobile Devices

Webcasts

Anthony Daniels on the Euro Crisis
The New Criterion author Anthony Daniels delivers remarks in New York City about the "European experiment." With an introduction by editor Roger Kimball. Recorded on November 30, 2011.


Andrew C. McCarthy: The Muslim Threat
The New Criterion contributor Andrew C. McCarthy delivers remarks in Effingham, Illinois, about the threat of Islamism to the United States. A Friend of The New Criterion, Dwight Erskine, introduces McCarthy to the Effingham audience. Recorded on October 1, 2011.


Roger Kimball: The Grim Future of Statism
The New Criterion editor Roger Kimball delivers remarks in Effingham, Illinois, about the future of statism and The New Criterion's 30th anniversary. A Friend of The New Criterion, Dwight Erskine, introduces Roger Kimball to the Effingham audience. Recorded on October 1, 2011.