Blackbird Archive
← v17n2, Fall 2018
Poetry · Volume 17, Number 2

O Felon Heart

Ann Townsend

What’s that musiche said,

alert always to the undertow,

to the tide interrupted.Who’s sick at heart

he said, wanting me to say no one,

wanting one bodysubject to another

into infinity. What’s that wine

you’re drinkinghe said,

adept at all my mouth wanted to gather.

Why not just saywhat happened

I said, aware my words

were retrograde,and liking

that debased formula, all the power

the tired script of lovestill had to offer.

You know that song, its name,

its testament.You know what rooms

we steal through to hear it now.

desirelove
Ann Townsend

Ann Townsend is the author of the poetry collections Dear Delinquent (Sarabande Books, 2019), The Coronary Garden (Sarabande Books, 2005), and Dime Store Erotics (Silverfish Review Press, 1998). She is also the coeditor of Radiant Lyre: Essays on Lyric Poetry (Graywolf Press, 2007). Her work has appeared in Kenyon Review , The Paris Review , and Poetry , among others. She is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Lannan Foundation, and The Ohio Arts Council. Townsend is also the recipient of a 2016 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award for her work as cofounder of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts. She is director of the Creative Writing Program at Denison University.