Cantilever

John Ashbery

I knew we should have stopped back there
by the pudding station
but the pudding people were so – well –
full of themselves.

The Sphinx didn’t want us to come this far
even though we answered her questions
and threw in a bonus answer: “As honey is to the jaguar.”

And we so well all along too –

Coming up is the world’s longest single cantilever span.
I am numb with thrips.

John Ashbery (1927–2017) was a poet whose many collections of poetry include Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, which won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Originally published:
October 1, 1995

Featured

Cancel Culture and Other Myths

Anti-fandom as heartbreak
Kathryn Lofton

Ode to Babel

The ecstasy of Michael K. Williams
Roger Reeves

A Moral Education

In praise of filth
Garth Greenwell

You Might Also Like

The Brink of Destruction

Revisiting John Ashbery’s “Soonest Mended”
Edward Hirsch


Books

How to Continue

AIDS Elegies After Ashbery
Sam Huber

Subscribe

New perspectives, enduring writing. Join a conversation 200 years in the making. Subscribe to our print journal and receive four beautiful issues per year.
Subscribe