Along With Whatever Has Not Yet Been Named

By Reginald Shepherd

This article appeared in the September 1, 2008 edition of The Nation.

August 13, 2008

Take if you will this improbable boy,
skin like August arcing toward its apex,
heat sheen across the highway, hazy
gloss on the way things seem, in transit
from one state to another. Raised by the same god
of vacant Sunday parking lots
and imported palm trees, natives of nothing
near home, he comes from the high sound
of his own voice, his skin sings something
he can't recall, a sudden wind through yellow-
brown palm fronds, rising and as quickly gone,
rising and subsiding all at once, at one
with nothing held in place.

Take if you will this boy made out
of wish and will-not-ever-be, made out
to be something he's not, breeze
through the trees. Puzzle his riddling
skin, his irrigated desert
body couched in eroding
mountains. Ride out the rustling sibilants
and make a man into an effigy:
of summer skin, the last exemplar.

Subscriber Login

4 ISSUES FREE

Subscribe Now!

The only way to read this article and the full contents of each week's issue of The Nation online is by subscribing to the magazine. Subscribe now and read this article -- and every article published since for the past five years -- right now.

There's no obligation -- try The Nation for four weeks free.

.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Blogs

» The Beat

Feingold's Outline for a Constitutional Presidency | In a letter to Obama, Constitution subcommittee chair seeks a commitment to end executive excess.
John Nichols
Posted at 2:15 PM ET

» State of Change

Mukasey, Elliott Abrams Get Last-Minute Bush Appointments | Abusing the transition process to take care of aides, friends and supporters
John Nichols
Posted at 2:14 PM ET

» Capitolism

Yes to Special Elections for Senators | Remember the 17th amendment?
Christopher Hayes

» The Dreyfuss Report

Panetta? Ummmmm... Well..... | Could Obama have made a weirder choice for CIA director? Here's why Panetta is doomed.
Robert Dreyfuss

» Act Now!

Allow Media into Gaza | Israel is encouraging abuses by preventing foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip.
Peter Rothberg

» Editor's Cut

A Trillion Dollar Recovery | We don't need a stimulus, we need a recovery. And that means investing $1 trillion over the next two years.
Katrina vanden Heuvel

» The Notion

Hard Times Without Studs | One of Terkel’s former book editors considers a Studs-less world.
Tom Engelhardt

» And Another Thing

Bill Ayers Whitewashes History, Again | The Weathermen were not just a bunch of idealistic young people.
Katha Pollitt