Halflife

The Lighthouse Keeper

My ear, a shell on the pillow;

        the down, the sea from which his mouth arrived

Strange to live in a wet world, then wake in the desert.

        The cactus on whom milky needles grow.

Let me live offshore, where the water is low.

        Strange, and then so much less so.

I was seventeen.  Do you want

        to know what I didn't know?

I do.

That is from the new book of poetry by Meghan O'Rourke, columnist and culture editor at Slate.com.  Here are five more poems from the book.  Here is a page on the book.  Here is an interview.  Here is a rave New York Times review.