Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Don’t tell your father I never voted for Nixon

Three poems by Keith Ekiss

Keith Ekiss
Keith Ekiss

Hubert Humphrey

  • — Richard Avedon, March 12th, 1976
  • Whether or not he won,
  • Humphrey looks like the candidate
  • who lost: no sensual lip,
  • cheeks drawn, eyes slanted
  • wary of hawks. Vietnam
  • has ended. In a gallery
  • crowded with faces looking
  • at faces my mother can’t recall
  • his name. Don’t tell your father
  • I never voted for Nixon.
  • Didn’t she watch us
  • burning ourselves to hell?
  • Over ghost paper, a presence —
  • Humphrey’s still here:
  • I can almost shake the hand
  • of one whose name sounds
  • like he shrugs too much, whose face
  • loses nothing in gray, born
  • in a land of lace and hymnals,
  • Sundays spent on church
  • and Mondays worrying
  • (don’t tell the women)
  • what to do about the Russians.

Calendar

  • Visit a beekeeper to learn about stings.
  • Summer drips cream. Lesson yourself
  • in honey, contemplate sidewalk botany —
  • penny flowers — talking away
  • the day to willing neighbors. Months
  • lumber by like streetcars take them slow.
  • Only your father seems less than permanent,
  • coming and going at hours, while teachers
  • sing for a face that’s known to reveal joy.
  • Flip switches, toggling between good
  • and evil. The world obeys your commands.
  • In the evening, clocks and mothers
  • return shelter as you gesture toward
  • the window and darkness she can’t hear.

Night Sky Calling

  • I prick at window-cries
  • peek through curtains spy faces
  • or listen to drunken voices
  • singing off-key but at least
  • they’re singing. The same voice
  • I’ve heard it more than once
  • some woman moaning no.
  • How do I keep what’s mine
  • from hers? Squeaky-mouthed
  • hooker who curses out her john
  • forgoes the rules of traffic.
  • Midnight invaders want nothing
  • but a night-share on these streets
  • which seem so placid by day.

Keith Ekiss is a Jones Lecturer in Creative Writing at Stanford University and a former Wallace Stegner Fellow in poetry. He is the author of Pima Road Notebook (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2010) and translator of The Fire’s Journey, an epic poem by the Costa Rican writer Eunice Odio forthcoming from Tavern Books in four volumes. Territory of Dawn: The Selected Poems of Eunice Odio was published in spring 2016 by the Bitter Oleander Press. He is a former Robert Frost Fellow in poetry at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Jayson Napolitano’s Scarlet Moon releases third Halloween album

Latest effort has the most local vibe
Keith Ekiss
Keith Ekiss

Hubert Humphrey

  • — Richard Avedon, March 12th, 1976
  • Whether or not he won,
  • Humphrey looks like the candidate
  • who lost: no sensual lip,
  • cheeks drawn, eyes slanted
  • wary of hawks. Vietnam
  • has ended. In a gallery
  • crowded with faces looking
  • at faces my mother can’t recall
  • his name. Don’t tell your father
  • I never voted for Nixon.
  • Didn’t she watch us
  • burning ourselves to hell?
  • Over ghost paper, a presence —
  • Humphrey’s still here:
  • I can almost shake the hand
  • of one whose name sounds
  • like he shrugs too much, whose face
  • loses nothing in gray, born
  • in a land of lace and hymnals,
  • Sundays spent on church
  • and Mondays worrying
  • (don’t tell the women)
  • what to do about the Russians.

Calendar

  • Visit a beekeeper to learn about stings.
  • Summer drips cream. Lesson yourself
  • in honey, contemplate sidewalk botany —
  • penny flowers — talking away
  • the day to willing neighbors. Months
  • lumber by like streetcars take them slow.
  • Only your father seems less than permanent,
  • coming and going at hours, while teachers
  • sing for a face that’s known to reveal joy.
  • Flip switches, toggling between good
  • and evil. The world obeys your commands.
  • In the evening, clocks and mothers
  • return shelter as you gesture toward
  • the window and darkness she can’t hear.

Night Sky Calling

  • I prick at window-cries
  • peek through curtains spy faces
  • or listen to drunken voices
  • singing off-key but at least
  • they’re singing. The same voice
  • I’ve heard it more than once
  • some woman moaning no.
  • How do I keep what’s mine
  • from hers? Squeaky-mouthed
  • hooker who curses out her john
  • forgoes the rules of traffic.
  • Midnight invaders want nothing
  • but a night-share on these streets
  • which seem so placid by day.

Keith Ekiss is a Jones Lecturer in Creative Writing at Stanford University and a former Wallace Stegner Fellow in poetry. He is the author of Pima Road Notebook (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2010) and translator of The Fire’s Journey, an epic poem by the Costa Rican writer Eunice Odio forthcoming from Tavern Books in four volumes. Territory of Dawn: The Selected Poems of Eunice Odio was published in spring 2016 by the Bitter Oleander Press. He is a former Robert Frost Fellow in poetry at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Dia de los Muertos Celebration, Love Thy Neighbor(Hood): Food & Art Exploration

Events November 2-November 6, 2024
Next Article

Gonzo Report: Three nights of Mission Bayfest bring bliss

“This is a top-notch production.”
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader