Joe Donahue (Joseph Donahue of Duke University  in North Carolina and the literary constellation Lowelliana) has a poem in the Dec. 24 issue of The Nation magazine, one of the few remaining nationally distributed publications that regularly make room for poets–and thus a fantastic location for widespread viewing of literary compositions. I’m a subscriber, so I’m taking the liberty of sharing the poem with our readers—otherwise you would not be able to access it online. — PM.

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Back

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Chuang Tzu

asked the skull: what

do you want?

The skull

said: to be

rushing among

all those

who seem

still tumbling

from bed, to shower,

to street, to work,

hair still wet.

The river wind

must feel even fresher

for them,

a cold crown

to their

thoughts,

as they marvel

at the day’s news

about minerals

found on meteorites…

I want to be,

the skull said,

back in New York.

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—Joseph Donahue