You Must Remember This. Michael Bazzett

      

      © 2014, Text by Michael Bazzett

      © 2014, Cover photograph by Alec Soth (Magnum Photos)

      All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher: Milkweed Editions, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Suite 300, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415.

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       www.milkweed.org

      Published 2014 by Milkweed Editions

      Cover design by Mary Austin Speaker

      Cover photograph by Alec Soth (Magnum Photos)

      Author photo by Leslie Bazzett

      14 15 16 17 18 5 4 3 2 1

      First Edition

      Milkweed Editions, an independent nonprofit publisher, gratefully acknowledges sustaining support from the Bush Foundation; the Jerome Foundation; the Lindquist & Vennum Foundation; the McKnight Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Target Foundation; and other generous contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. Also, this activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund, and a grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation Minnesota. For a full listing of Milkweed Editions supporters, please visit www.milkweed.org.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Bazzett, Michael.

       [Poems. Selections]

       You must remember this / Michael Bazzett. -- First edition.

      pages cm

       Includes bibliographical references and index.

       ISBN 978-1-57131-930-2 (ebook) I. Title.

       PS3602.A999A6 2014

       811›.6--dc23

      2014019175

      Milkweed Editions is committed to ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book production practices with this principle, and to reduce the impact of our operations in the environment. We are a member of the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the world’s endangered forests and conserve natural resources. You Must Remember This was printed on acid-free 100% postconsumer-waste paper by Friesens Corporation.

      For Leslie

After Machado

I

In Vladivostok

Cyclops

The Field Beyond the Wall

Memory

Soirée

When They Meet, They Can’t Help It

Clockwatcher

Atlas

       The Difficulty of Holding Time

       The Same Bones

       Some Party

       The Building

       The Sinclair Gift Emporium

       Rather Than Read Another Word

       The Last Expedition

       Holder Strand

       II

       Oil and Ash

       Look, he said, and pointed

       Aria

       from A Natural History of Silence

       Unspoken

       From Chaos

       What Might

       September Picnic

       Interrogation

       Lions

       A Woman Stands in a Field

       The Crisis

       Elpenor

       Look, Overlook

       III

       The Dark Thing

       The Book of _______________

       Nuns

       The Shop Across the Street

       The People Who Came Afterward

       The Professional

       Imperfection

       The Horse

       Now Here, Nowhere

       In the Pasture Corner

       How It Survived for a While

       The School

       The Orangutan

       Manhood

       Foretold

       Binary

       Recollection

       The Last Time I Saw God

After Machado

      Standing by the water

      I remembered

      the delicate and confused

      dream I had last night

      it was bruised

      even in the remembering

      so these words

      can only glance

      sidelong at the beehive

      that replaced my heart

      with all that pulsing

      making honey from the loss.