The Missouri Review
Discovering the best in fiction, essays, and poetry
Poem of the Week - September 22, 2009
Nervous Tic
My history is uninteresting, or
I have nothing to speak into the face of my love.
My desk is facing my own reflection in a too large TV.
Trucks have been reversing all morning.
All morning trucks have been moving through gears.
A string of high pitched sounds repeating.
The wind through the window can be measured in doses.
The wind, scraping the outer edges of my ears, exposes
The pale undersides of sycamore leaves, knocking
At seed pods hanging in brown bunches
So that they helicopter down.
Slag heap, mad slack, taut song:
Which morning am I making up now?
A wall of cotton disperses in the wind.
Somewhere wild animals are seeking cool hollows
In which to lay themselves down.
There slate layers cake the riverbank clay
And they lay themselves down. For example,
My desk is facing my own reflection in a too large TV,
While waiting outside my room the terrier sprawls.
This week we're proud to feature "Nervous Tic," a previously unpublished poem by Sally Keith. Design, her first book, won the 2000 Colorado Prize, judged by Allen Grossman. Her second manuscript, Dwelling Song, was chosen for publication by Bin Ramke and Fanny Howe for the University of Georgia's Contemporary Poetry Series. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize; has published poems in numerous journals, including: Denver Quarterly, Colorado Review, Volt, A Public Space, and Forklift, Ohio; and has received fellowships from The Breadloaf Writer's Conference, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and most recently from the Brown Foundation Fellows Residence Program at the Dora Maar House in Menerbes, France. She is currently a faculty member of George Mason University's MFA program in Poetry.
Our Latest Issue: Crash
33.2 Summer 2010
Featuring work by M.C. Armstrong, John W. Evans, Benjamin S. Grossberg, Becky Adnot Haynes, Nathan Hogan, Jonathan Johnson, Devin Murphy, Wade Ostrowski, and Sharon Solwitz... and an interview with Natasha Trethewey.
In Our Store
We now offer individual back issues for sale as well as full subscriptions.
Subscription Deal:
Subscribe today and receive FREE gifts: The Best of The Missouri Review Travel anthology.
Digital Subscriptions Now Available
NEW! Subscribe to four digital issues of The Missouri Review. We are proud to be one of the first literary magazines in the world to publish in print, digital and audio formats. This ENHANCED subscription option gives you full access to the digital text of our entire print issue PLUS the audio version of the magazine. Get your digital subscription through our online store today!
Connect to TMR
The Missouri Review
Purchase the new issue now or start a subscription today!