Sun Bear. Matthew Zapruder

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       for Sarah

      Contents

       Title Page

        Note to Reader

        Dedication

      1  I

      1  Sun Bear

      2  Aubergine

      3  What Can Poetry Do

      4  Public Art

      5  How Do You Like the Underworld

      6  Poem without Intimacy

      7  My Childhood

      8  Poem for England

      9  Poem for Engagement

      10  Poem for a Persian Singer

      11  Poem for Giants

      12  Poem for Japan

      13  The Moment

      1  II

      1  Korea

      2  Poem for Wine

      3  Poem for Plutocrats

      4  I Drink Bronze Light

      5  Poem for Engagement

      6  It Is Tuesday

      7  Your Eyes Are the Color of a Lightbulb Floating in the Potomac River

      8  Poem for Wisconsin

      9  Poem for a Coin

      10  Poem to a Cloud above a Statue

      11  Poem for Massachusetts

      12  To Sergio Franchi

      13  Poem for Americans

      1  III

      1  Poem for Happiness

      2  The Heart Is Not a Door

      3  Poem for Russia with a White Plastic Wolf

      4  Albert Einstein

      5  Ode to Fluffy

      6  Your Story

      7  Poem for Lu Chi

      8  Poem for a Vial of Nameless Perfume

      9  Poem for Jack Spicer

      10  Poem for Bill Cassidy

      11  Telegraph Flowers

      12  Poem for California

      13  American Singer

        About the Author

        Books by Matthew Zapruder

        Acknowledgments

        Copyright

        Special Thanks

I

Sun Bear

      yesterday at the Oakland zoo

      I was walking alone for a moment

      past the enclosure holding the sun bear

      also known as beruang madu

      it looked at me without interest

      it has powerful jaws and truly loves honey

      it sleeps in a high hammock

      its claws look made out of wood

      and if it dreams at all it is of Malaysia

      home of its enemy the clouded leopard

      a gorgeous arboreal

      hunting and eating machine

      whose coat resembles a python

      now it is night and the zoo is closed

      some animals are sleeping

      the nocturnals moving in their cages

      getting ready to hunt nothing

      I don’t know why but I feel sure

      something has woken the sun bear

      it is awake in the dark

      maybe it is my spirit animal

      I am reading about the early snow

      that has fallen on the Northeast

      all the power shutting down

      the weather going insane

      the animals cannot help us

      they go on moving without love

      though we look into their eyes and feel

      sure we see it there and maybe

      we are right nothing

      can replace animal love

      not even complicated human love

      we sometimes choose to allow

      ourselves to be chosen by

      despite what everyone knows

      the