issue 11 FEATURE

THIS NEVERENDER
Danniel Schoonebeek

There’s a saw discontinues the loved who are void I have seen it.  


I have seen it as I have seen from the mess hall 

their seventh-degree burns rise again.


As I have seen in the bagnio my consumption it rises again. 


This existence in which I blame god on the tree line through which you no longer intrude. 


This ending in which I withdraw myself from your banks but I’ve seen it. 


When I return from you like a failed occupation.


And I stalk your geese who make laughingstock of my enemies.


And into their villages. 

And the clothes I wear gasoline. 


There’s a love that persuades you I’ve seen it:

beating to death a politico


on the steps of the white house for another half century


will equal a riot 

on behalf of the strange who were loved 


who are void

but I’ve loved it. 


I have loved it as I have loved the mobs who are coming to disfigure my liberty.


Who say a stranglehold’s coming for me

that cares least for my throat. 


And this existence in which I blame money on the lowland into which you won’t cloud.    


And they tell me god’s wealth is my throat within reach but I’ve seen it. 


I have seen it as I have seen you bed down in a pauper’s grave

and the worms tell you god is sketch. 


I have seen them announce

the airstrikes are here for your mess halls


but I can’t say if I felt the compunction. 


If I did I was young.


Or if I did I was you.


And god’s wealth was my throat within reach. 

 
Photo by Veronica Rafael

Photo by Veronica Rafael

Danniel Schoonebeek’s first book of poems, American Barricade (YesYes Books, 2014), was named one of the year’s ten standout debuts by Poets & Writers and called “a groundbreaking first book that stands to influence its author’s generation” by Boston Review. The recipient of the 2015 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, his work has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, Tin House, Iowa Review, Fence, BOMB, The Brooklyn Rail, jubilat, Guernica, and elsewhere. His second book, a travelogue called C’est la guerre, will be released by Poor Claudia in 2015.