Your name is splashed across the sky at night,
———-—like some kind of petty graffiti,
to be honest, and it’s an entertaining slight
that you misspelled my name above the sea
———-—and above the trees here. I thought I had
dominion. What is man that you should make me see
my name above everything, the oceans, the sad
———-—hordes of beasts, the fidgety birds, and bright
fish? Did you think that this would make me glad?
Nathaniel Perry is the author of two books of poetry, Nine Acres (Copper Canyon/APR) and Long Rules (Backwaters), and a book of essays, Joy (Or Something Darker but Like It) (Michigan). He is editor of Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review and lives in Virginia.
