Welcome to “Poetry at The Arts Fuse.” A new poem every Thursday.

FREE THROWS

In her sleep the old dog
twitches a little —
silent all day
she makes a muffled call —

*

The problem becomes clearer —
just walk right up to it
and solve it. A new problem
appears. It looks the same
as the first problem
and then you spot differences
which once you find them all
make the problem go away.
A new problem appears
identical to the original.
You walk up to it
and solve it
and it doesn’t go away
and now there are two of it.
You solve them both
and now there are four of it.

*

First things
aren’t things

*

Don’t worship the sun!
Being thankful for it is plenty

Only one thing
to give your all
and it isn’t a thing

(and your all isn’t yours, anyway)

*

How, what a trowel
of a word you are.
How are you.
How do you do
that simple work
nothing else can —
making the action
turn from result
to what’s going on.
Do you know how
much I love you,
how? I know,
you hate measuring.
You like digging.
Look at you,
covered in dirt.

Jordan Davis‘s third book, Yeah, No, was published by MadHat in 2023. His poems have appeared in Poetry and The New Yorker and his reviews have appeared in Slate and the Times Literary Supplement. He is a former Poetry Editor of The Nation.

Note: Hey poets! We seek submissions of excellent poetry from across the length and breadth of contemporary poetics. See submission guidelines here. The arbiter of the feature is the magazine’s poetry editor, John Mulrooney.

— Arts Fuse editor Bill Marx