#next day

The next day TV: "Our hands are clean. We were just trolling everyone, playing it up for the absurdity." Officials: "We were the ones holding this sinking ship together!" Military: "Not our call. We don't make the rules, we just follow 'em." Teachers: "Barely getting by on peanuts. Gotta put food on the table, right?" Celebrities: "Politics? Not my circus, not my monkeys."

A remarkable life in poetry across four decades unfolds in the pages of Cynthia Zarin’s Next Day: New and Selected Poems. Here’s her “Bruise,” from about midway through the journey.

Bruise

          Black bruise an inch below my knee; white bone, my      kneecap wrenched askew;

          knee a blind eye, bruise a shiner, the pair of them two      goggle-eyes, bridged by

          a shiny, half-moon scar. A battered aviatrix? She      flies above a dream island.

          At three, I fell from a knee-high curb. Mind yourself,      I hear the voices say,

          when decades later, in the bath, my knee, drowned      face, knucklehead, rises

          above the water table, volcano with its violet flame.      Bedpost? Doorjamb?

          The hours last week turned to glass? And if asked      to swear to it, say

          what’s to blame? The mind trolls, reels back,      and begins, and begins

          again to prove how if I’d only done that one thing—      but there are so many.

More on this book and author:

Learn more about Next Day by Cynthia Zarin.

Browse other books by Cynthia Zarin.

Visit our Tumblr to peruse poems, audio recordings, and broadsides in the Knopf poem-a-day series.

Just wanted to create a random Oc 🧍‍♂️

All the kids did well in school, although Liam seemed to struggle a bit with putting all his soul into it, something both his parents noticed, but as it wasn’t like he was doing bad, they also didn’t feel the need to push him too much about it more than ask on occasion to see if there was something special. 

River: So, we have a little summer surprise for you. Liam: Ehm? Lucas: Since you got your grades up, we talked to Carl and he said you could come work for him this summer in the coffee bar, and learn to be a barista. -he saw the light in his son's eyes as a smile just spread on his face- I mean, if you want to? Liam: I would love to! I mean, I want to help out here too, but yes. River: It is a weekend and Wednesday deal with them, so those would be your working days. It’s a new concept for them, but their barista needs a helping hand, so your mom might have said you wanted to learn. Liam just looked at the both of them, before he threw himself into their arms both giving and getting a hug at the same time. 

Liam: But Teddy? River: I asked, and it's an outside pop-up, so Teddy is welcome to come along. You will have to have a little house for him, food and water of course. Liam: So a trip to the pet store today then. -they give their parents a wide smile- and then help of course.