April 28, 2007: Theories of Time and Space, Natasha Trethewey
Theories of Time and Space
Natasha Trethewey
You can get there from here, though
there’s no going home.
Everywhere you go will be somewhere
you’ve never been. Try this:
head south on Mississippi 49, one-
by-one mile markers ticking off
another minute of your life. Follow this
to its natural conclusion - dead end
at the coast, the pier at Gulfport where
riggings of shrimp boats are loose stitches
in a sky threatening rain. Cross over
the man-made beach, 26 miles of sand
dumped on a mangrove swamp - buried
terrain of the past. Bring only
what you must carry - tome of memory
its random blank pages. On the dock
where you board the boat for Ship Island,
someone will take your picture:
the photograph - who you were -
will be waiting when you return.
[Natasha Trethewey just won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.]
More like this:
Letter Home, Natasha Trethewey
Limen, Natasha Trethewey
A year ago: Dream Song 145, John Berryman
Two years ago: Having It Out With Melancholy, Jane Kenyon
