Eryn Green

AMERICA WINDOWS (GOBLIN VALLEY)

Some of my favorite
foods are desert flowers.
Like a tortoise. Vision is exile
exactly to the extent we open
our senses for it. The Troll Forest
is real—I mean you can find it
somewhere in Pennsylvania. Goblin Valley
too. Pennsylvania. Utah. Heaven
is exile properly named. Impossible
vanities surround us daily.
If there are better words than love
for the unexpected beatific
terroir of our days, the ear
hasn’t heard them. The eye
roams unspeakable
traverses. Here they are.
And here. Have you heard
a ukulele recently? Yesterday
everyone I love stood gifted
and blinking back tears
under a whole new breathtake of sun

ERYN GREEN is the author of two books of poetry—Eruv, which won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize, and Beit, was received the Editor’s Choice Award from New Issues Poetry & Prose. An assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he serves as coordinator for the World Literature Program, he lives with his wife, Hanna, and their daughter, Aya, near the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.