the national poetry month issue || apocalypse

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University of Northern Iowa Apocalypse Author(s): Stephen Gibson Source: The North American Review, Vol. 293, No. 2, The National Poetry Month Issue (MARCH-APRIL 2008), pp. 26-27 Published by: University of Northern Iowa Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41220232 . Accessed: 16/06/2014 18:38 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . University of Northern Iowa is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The North American Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 91.229.229.49 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 18:38:03 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: The National Poetry Month Issue || Apocalypse

University of Northern Iowa

ApocalypseAuthor(s): Stephen GibsonSource: The North American Review, Vol. 293, No. 2, The National Poetry Month Issue(MARCH-APRIL 2008), pp. 26-27Published by: University of Northern IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41220232 .

Accessed: 16/06/2014 18:38

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

University of Northern Iowa is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The NorthAmerican Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.49 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 18:38:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: The National Poetry Month Issue || Apocalypse

N A R

STEPHEN GIBSON

Apocalypse (Romey April 2006)

Three Italian soldiers and one Rumanian have been blown up by a roadside bomb

in Iraq. It's all over the news. Italy was supposed to be withdrawing

her troops from what most Italians feel is a manufactured war, which they wanted

no part of, and didn't from the beginning -

but people weren't listened to. Beginning now, maybe they will be - unlike the Rumanian

woman begging at the end of the line: she wanted

her poverty to be believed, but her cup was empty. The bomb was an IED, like those killing our troops. I feel

strange standing in line at the Vatican - there's a girl drawing

the statues that line the top of St. Peter's. It's a charcoal drawing. The line goes all the way back, beginning

with the sawhorses that are set up just inside the plaza. It feels

odd. This morning, the Danube was overflowing and Rumanian farmers were sandbagging levees that looked bombed.

The dirt roads were filled with horse-drawn wagons. I wanted

to get away from the news, but you don't always get what you want, as Mick says. The girl isn't wearing a bra. She's drawing

statues of saints, the levees look like they were bombed

by Stukas, and I'm peeking through an armhole. At the beginning of this line waiting to get into the Vatican there's a Rumanian

woman begging. How's that for a confluence? If she feels

like every one of us is a prick, she's right, because I feel nothing for her. I saw one of her in Venice. I wanted

to get past her to the train station. I was in a hurry. The Rumanian

countryside is under water. Italy was supposed to be withdrawing from Iraq and three of her soldiers got killed by a bomb

inside the carcass of an animal. That's what it said in the beginning

26 NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW March-April 2008

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Page 3: The National Poetry Month Issue || Apocalypse

N A R

of the news segment this morning. I was just beginning to have breakfast in the dining room of my hotel (I don't feel

like myself until I have coffee) when news of the roadside bomb

was all they could talk about. It was like being back home. I wanted to get away - and then there was Bush saying, "Withdrawing

our troops prematurely would be a mistake." The Rumanian

who got killed by that bomb was hardly mentioned. I wanted to see the Sistine Chapel. I feel odd. There's a girl drawing.

At the beginning of the line there's a woman I think is Rumanian.

CAROLYNE WRIGHT

Postmortem: Eulene

Occluded stars bully me like ghosts among twilit half domes. They mock my tongue with honey and silver, blood- hued moons and tree sloths that unwrap their slow shovels

and plummet past the luster palms in a mottled swoon. Their tails never did curl properly. So what about the blood count of the stars, the night's relentless weather?

Cancun couldn't let on about its revelers under such yield signs, hedged about with corduroy and sticky milk. The scatter-bird snaps the quetzal's neck and panthers grind their incisors. Only names whose conjure fires

March-April 2008

ash out a superhuman scorn jump ship and disappear into the port's labyrinth of alleys. New lovers move them to safe houses after curfew and they emerge next season

with land-legged suits, new pin codes in their documents, new histories- they've always been here. Charismatic black sheep, the baby in the brain cries Babyy its mother opens her blouse in the swiss-cheese

riddle of hymnals. Jezebel is the name tag on the morgue's latest arrival. So why don't I turn my face, rueful blue but featureless, toward the self-effacing cradle?

NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW 27

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