Hailey Leithauser. Photo by Sandra Beasley.
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Zen Heaven
No melon, no lemon, no scone, no crumb,
no tuns of gin or barrels of bourbon,
no chocolate chiffon, no filet mignon.
No bumped shins, no bunions, no rain-ached bones,
no lesions or abrasions, no spasms,
nothing swollen, fallen, rotten, or numb.
No courtesans or virgins, no woman
or man. No estrogen, progesterone,
not one lone hormone to scorn or condone.
No vision, or mission, or chosen son,
no inaction or action, no outcome
of passion, no function, done or undone.
No lesson at the end, no dead dial tone.
No one in the tomb, no tomb, no tombstone.
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Hailey Leithauser is the author of Swoop, winner of the Poetry Foundation’s Emily Dickinson First Book Award, and Saint Worm. Her work appears regularly in journals such as 32 Poems, Agni, Cincinnati Review, Gettysburg Review, and The Yale Review.
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Relief panel from Borobudur, the Buddhist temple built in the 9th century A.D. in Java, Indonesia.