American Life in Poetry: Column 154 BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006 Here, poet Yusef Komunyakaa, who teaches at New York University, shows us a fine portrait of the hard life of a workerÑin this case, a horseÑand, through metaphor, the terrible, clumsy beauty of his final moments. Yellowjackets When the plowblade struck An old stump hiding under The soil like a beggarÕs Rotten tooth, they swarmed up & Mister Jackson left the plow Wedged like a whalerÕs harpoon. The horse was midnight Against dusk, tethered to somebodyÕs Pocketwatch. He shivered, but not The way women shook their heads Before mirrors at the five & dime—a deeper connection To the low fieldÕs evening star. He stood there, in tracechains, Lathered in froth, just Stopped by a great, goofy Calmness. He whinnied Once, & then the whole Beautiful, blue-black sky Fell on his back. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright © 2001 by Yusef Komunyakaa, reprinted from ÒPleasure Dome: New & Collected Poems, 1975-1999,Ó Wesleyan Univ. Press, 2001, by permission. Introduction copyright © 2007 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
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