Long Beach poet David Hernandez is a master of repetition in today’s poem-a-day “Mosul” from his 2011 collection Hoodwinked. I couldn’t quite decide today between war and grapes, so for a runner-up see also “Museum Guard” from Hernandez’s 2003 collection A House Waiting for Music.
And for other masterful examples of repetition, see also Marilyn Hacker’s “Rune of the Finland Woman,” Ann Lauterbach’s “Hum,” or William Shakespeare’s King Lear.
Enjoy.
Ellen
The donkey. The donkey pulling the cart.
The caravan of dust. The cart made of plywood,
of crossbeam and junkyard tires. The donkey
made of donkey. The long face. The long ears.
The curled lashes. The obsidian eyes blinking
in the dust. The cart rolling, cracking the knuckles
of pebbles. The dust. The blanket over the cart.
The hidden mortar shells. The veins of wires.
The remote device. The red light. The donkey
trotting. The blue sky. The rolling cart. The dust
smudging the blue sky. The silent bell of the sun.
The Humvee. The soldiers. The dust-colored
uniforms. The boy from Montgomery, the boy
from Little Falls. The donkey cart approaching.
The dust. The laughter on their lips. The dust
on their lips. The moment before the moment.
The shockwave. The dust. The dust. The dust.