A. Van Jordan Poems

When I'm running across the city
on the crowded streets
to home, when, in a blur,
the grass turns brown
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INSERT SHOT: Einstein's notebook 1905—DAY 1: a theory that is based on two postulates (a) that the speed of light in all inertial frames is constant, independent of the source or observer.
...

Because a razor cuts across a frame of film,
I wince, squinting my eye,
and because my day needs assembly
to make sense of the scenes anyway,
...

In my car, driving through Black Mountain,
North Carolina, I listen to what
sounds like Doris Day shooting
heroin inside Sly Stone's throat.
...

If one rainy night you find yourself
leaving a phone booth, and you meet a man
with a lavender umbrella, resist
your desire to follow him, to seek
...

I would like to swim in the Atlantic,
to swim with someone who understood
why my fear of drowning plays less dire
...