Grand & Arsenal

95 Pages·2012·0.27 MB·English

by  Webster

Grand & Arsenal
Grand &
Winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize
Arsenal
by Kerri Webster
University of Iowa Press
Iowa City
University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 52242
Copyright © 2012 by Kerri Webster
www.uiowapress.org
Printed in the United States of America
Design by Richard Hendel
No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any
form or by any means without permission in writing from
the publisher. All reasonable steps have been taken to
contact copyright holders of material used in this book.
The publisher would be pleased to make suitable arrangements
with any whom it has not been possible to reach. This is a
work of poetry; any resemblance to actual events or persons
is entirely coincidental.
The University of Iowa Press is a member of
Green Press Initiative and is committed to preserving
natural resources.
A special thanks to Jane Mead, the 2011 Iowa Poetry Prize judge.
Printed on acid-free paper
isbn-13: 978-1-60938-091-5
isbn-10: 1-60938-091-6
lccn: 2011938440
For Kathleen Finneran

Did you know that every chair in this room is stuffed
with the hair of horses I’ve loved?
— Murder at the Gallop, MGM, 1963
About halfway to River Heights, while enjoying the
pastoral scenes of cows standing knee-high in shallow
sections of the stream, and sheep grazing on flower-dotted
hillsides, Nancy suddenly realized the sun had been
blotted out.
— Carolyn Keene, The Secret of the Old Clock
She looked like someone had just set her favorite city on fire.
— Kelly Link, “The Hortlak”

Contents
1 3
Invoke, 3 The Book of Agatha, 53
Oracle Weather, 4 Doppelganger, 56
Keeper, Keeper, 6 Implanted Memories, 57
Atomic Clock, 9 Vernal, Utah, 58
The Book of Matthew, 20 The Palace at 4 A.M., 59
Seed Vault, 26 Sea Voyage, 60
In the Exclusion Zone, 62
2 Letter to a Young Poet, 64
Tinnitus, 33 Foretold, 66
Make of Her Peril a Figure, 34 Ecophilia, 67
Empire Coat, 36 All the Way from Here, 69
Places I Haven’t Slept, 39
Polysemy, 40 Postscript, 73
Thrift, 44 Notes, 77
Little Ornaments, 45
Diorama, 49
9