"What Follows Is a Reconstruction Based on the Best Available Evidence" by Erika Meitner

[View this email on a browser]( [Forward to a friend]( [facebook-icon]( [tumblr-icon]( [twitter-icon]( July 18, 2019 [What Follows Is a Reconstruction Based on the Best Available Evidence]( [Erika Meitner]( 1. I ate eggs from a chafing dish while the baker reminded us: the only thing that will hurt you out here are your own bad decisions 2. I felt fettered then un- 3. I listened to the rain 4. I listened to the rain hitting the Carrier compressor, the gravel walk 5. I listened to the rain flattening the clover, I listened to the rain letting up and then it was ozone and drip 6. On the bench under the overhang in the rain I let myself pretend I was younger and childless, like the first time I arrived here 7. The first time I arrived here, I never thought I am small and luminous 8. The body, burdened and miraculous 9. The body as thin-nest boundary 10. I climbed into your body like a cave 11. I was frightened to walk in the dark 12. Late at night even my own movements became unknowable, magnified and rustling 13. The night cut by the moon, punctured by the whistle of the cargo train 14. There was only a hole, there was only forward and more forward 15. The inevitability of a scarred life, your pulse, stitches, this palace of breath 16. go on, go on / again, again / return, return [Like this on Facebook]( [Share via Twitter]( Copyright © 2019 Erika Meitner. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 18, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets. [Meitner reads "What Follows Is a Reconstruction Based on the Best Available Evidence."]( About This Poem “This poem—a meditation on memory, time, and the way people and place inscribe our bodies—takes its title from a section in the book Delirious New York by architect Rem Koolhaas where he attempts to recreate Dreamland, an amusement park in Coney Island that was opened in 1904 and burned to the ground in 1911. The poem begins with something my friend the writer-baker-musician Martin Philip told me when we were at MacDowell Colony one summer, to allay my fears about walking in the dark woods at night. The last line is a transcription of audio from James Coleman’s a/v piece ‘Box (ahhareturnabout), 1977,’ made up of images and commentary from the 1927 boxing match between Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey for the world heavyweight title, nicknamed ‘the long count fight.’” —Erika Meitner [Erika Meitner]( Erika Meitner is the author of five books of poems, including Holy Moly Carry Me (BOA Editions, 2018), which was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry and the winner of the 2018 National Jewish Book Award in poetry. She is an associate professor of English and the director of the creative writing program at Virginia Tech. She lives in Blacksburg, Virginia. [more-at-poets]( [Holy Moly Carry Me]( Poetry by Meitner [Holy Moly Carry Me]( (BOA Editions, 2018) "In the gloaming, in the roiling night" by Ruth Awad [read-more]( from "In Pieces" by Rosmarie Waldrop [read-more]( ":: Searching for My Own Body ::" by Yesenia Montilla [read-more]( July Guest Editor: Paul Guest Thanks to [Paul Guest](, author of Because Everything Is Terrible (Diode Editions, 2018), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read a [Q&A with Guest]( about his curatorial approach this month and find out more about our [guest editors for the year.]( [make a one-time donation]( [illustration]( [Small-Blue-RGB-poets.org-Logo]( Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit [Poets.org](. You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click [here](. © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038