MODEL OF A CITY IN CIVIL WAR
THE LINDA BRUCKHEIMER SERIES IN KENTUCKY LITERATURE
© 2015 by Adam Day
FIRST EDITION
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher.
Please direct inquiries to:
Managing Editor
Sarabande Books, Inc.
2234 Dundee Road, Suite 200
Louisville, KY 40205
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Day, Adam, 1977–
[Poems. Selections]
Model of a city in civil war : poems / Adam Day.—First edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-941411-02-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
I. Title.
PS3604.A9798A6 2015
811’.6—dc23
2014028848
eBook ISBN: 978-1-941411-06-3
Cover by Jonathan Graf.
Interior by Kirkby Gann Tittle
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Sarabande Books is a nonprofit literary organization.
The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, supports Sarabande Books with state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
CONTENTS
2 Model of a City in Civil War
3 Combine
4 Anoosh’s Obituary for Himself, to His Son
5 Winter Nights
6 Hiding Again, in London
7 Sleeping with Uncle Lester
8 The Leaving
9 Winter Inventory
10 Water from the Same Source
11 Elebade
12 Blind Attis
13 Smoke
14 Time Away
15 The Children, the Grass
16 Undercover
17 Apprehended at a Distance
18 Snow in a Brick Courtyard
19 Winter Fever
20 The Cow
21 The Insomniac
22 We Lived Above the Key Shop
23 Clean Lines, Diffuse Lighting
24 Coming in at Night
25 Washing the Old Man
26 He Speaks of Old Age
27 His Dementia
28 In Mourning
29 Now and Forever
30 Fårö
31 The Kinghorse Butchertown Brawl
32 Dakota
33 A Polite History
34 The Revolution
35 Diorama—(Scarlet and Liver)
36 Sarclet
37 The Mayor in Sky-Blue Socks
38 The Birthday Party
39 A Strapping Boy
40 Orr’s Island
41 Unease
42 Comportment
43 Condensation Cube
Notes
The author
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Grateful acknowledgement to the editors of the following publications, where these poems, sometimes in different versions, first appeared:
AGNI: “The Children, the Grass” (published as [Here are the Children]” and “Combine”
Antioch Review: “Hiding Again, in London”
Carolina Quarterly: “His Dementia”
Columbia: A Journal of Literature & Art: “Sarclet” and “Dakota”
Colorado Review: “Condensation Cube”
Copper Nickel: “Blind Attis”
Crab Orchard Review: “Snow in a Gdansk Courtyard”
dcomP magazine: “The Revolution”
FIELD: “Water from the Same Source”
Forklift: Ohio: “He Speaks of Old Age” (published as “Old Age”)
Gulf Coast: “Anoosh’s Obituary for Himself, to His Son”
Handsome: “The Mayor in Sky Blue Socks” (published as “[Deer herd in the icy fields]”)
Hotel Amerika: “Apprehended at a Distance” (published as “[The colorless lake, buoy bells in fog]”) and “Model of a City in Civil War” (published as “[A diorama of a city in civil war]”)
Indiana Review: “Fårö” (published as “The Dinner Party”)
iO: A Journal of New American Poetry: “Time Away” (published as “Shark and Dog”)
Jelly Fish: “Elebade”
Kenyon Review: “Diorama—(Scarlet and Liver)” (published as “Gallows Portraits”) and “Family Romance”
Madison Review: “Sleeping with Uncle Lester”
Mid-American Review: “The Kinghorse Butchertown Brawl”
Louisville Review: “Strapping”