Middle of the Movie

Andrew Saviano

The TV is on mute: a slender man
in a towel shoos a moth from the sill
of an open door, while on the porch appears
(he does not see, the movie forbids him)
a dream-large shape with a cartoonish mask, which halts,
cocks its head, turns, and seeps ever closer
to him. It is the return of aparthood,
a figure whose aim, before it kills him,
is to woo us in an extended moment
with its awful grace, forcing the part of us
that houses desire to come to grips
with our impulse to destroy, as if we were
to see the tremor in cupped hands
presenting a lotus flower they would crush.

Andrew Saviano was born in Brooklyn, New York. His poems have appeared in publications including The New Republic, The Threepenny Review, and Salmagundi.
Originally published:
January 1, 2019

Featured

10 Ways Ms., Sassy, and Jezebel Changed Your Life!

How contradiction drove fifty years of feminist media
Maggie Doherty

How Emily Wilson Reimagined Homer

Her boldly innovative translation of the Iliad is an epic for our time
Emily Greenwood

In the Shallows

Why do public intellectuals condescend to their readers?
Becca Rothfeld

You Might Also Like

Darklight

Rosanna Warren

The Bees

Victoria Chang

Hades

Aria Aber

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