American Life in Poetry: “At the Dorm” by Mandy Kahn

I love this poem by Mandy Kahn for its witty account of the way two young people find each other. The poet lives in Los Angeles and this is from her book “Math, Heaven, Time,” from Eyewear Publishing.

At the Dorm

Week upon week at the dorm she watched him

working at a table with a pencil in his teeth,

eating with a stack of books and papers,

reading while he walked. His hair was

groups of angry men, his sweaty cuffs were wrinkled

at his forearms: he seemed to be loved by no one.

But always there were pairs of houseflies

hovering above him, landing on his nest of notes,

trailing him as if with streamers and sound.

A farm girl, she knew to follow the flies:

they’ll take you to the milk just pulled to the pail,

to the cow’s haunch where the meat will one day be sweetest,

the swelled pond, the unlatched gate. Everything,

she knew, was in those notebooks

he would carry: her future, the distances of islands, poles

and stars, the reason for the network of men’s follies,

how to spend the night.

Poem copyright 2014 by Mandy Kahn from “Math, Heaven, Time,” (Eyewear Publishing, 2014) and reprinted by permission of the author and publisher. American Life in Poetry is supported by the Poetry Foundation and the English department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We do not accept unsolicited submissions.