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Mystic Bounce

By Terrance Hayes Terrance Hayes Read the Q & A

Even if you love the racket of ascension,

you must know how the power leaves you.

And at this pitch who has time for meditation?

the sea walled in by buildings. I do miss

the quiet, don't you? When I said, "Fuck the deer

antlered and hithered in fur," it was because

I had seen the faces of presidents balled into a fist.

If I were in charge, I would know how to fix

the world: free health care or free physicals,

at least, and an abiding love for the abstract.

When I said, "All of history is saved for us,"

it was because I scorned the emancipated sky.

Does the anthem choke you up? When I asked

God if anyone born to slaves would die

a slave, He said: "Sure as a rock descending

a hillside." That's why I'm not a Christian.

Source: Poetry (March 2008).

Biography

Terrance Hayes is the author of Wind in a Box (Penguin 2006), Hip Logic (Penguin 2002) and Muscular Music (Tia Chucha Press, 1999). His book Lighthead (2010) won the National Book Award in 2010. His other honors include a Whiting Writers Award, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, a National Poetry Series award, a Pushcart Prize, two Best American Poetry selections, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He is a Professor . . .

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