First Knowledge

 
A small room but it was my room,
in a foreign country on a side street 

named after a queen. From my single bed 

pushed against sash windows, I listened 
to the world of urinating men, 

heard hard-accented curse words as bar fights 

broke out and couples pushed-up against our rooming house 
stairs. Upstairs, Ravel’s Bolero blared 

for Leo, who believed he’d created the longest orgasm in the world. 

When two waitresses appeared 
from behind his door, I was not yet 

drinking age, uncertain of multiple bodies. 

Each morning, I’d stare in the mirror—
pour water from a blue pitcher,

then drown in a chipped porcelain bowl.

A private still-life as the landlady painted
eviction notices on each international boyfriend.

Until I sang so long, moved on to document miracles

beyond the sexual, beyond a wall 
of makeshift egg cartons: a soundproofing composition

by the former tenant, a cellist from Senegal. 

ξ

Seattle poet Susan Rich is the author of four poetry books, most recently, Cloud Pharmacy (shortlisted for the Julie Suk Prize) and The Alchemist’s Kitchen (Finalist for the Washington State Book Award). She has earned an Artists Trust Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, the PEN USA Award for Poetry, the Times (of London) Literary Supplement Award and three 4Culture Grants. Rich's publications include Blackbird Journal, Harvard Review, New England Review, and World Literature Today. She has two collections forthcoming: A Gallery of Postcards and Maps: New and Selected Poems(Salmon Press) and Blue Atlas (Red Hen Press).