This week in the PEN Poetry Series, PEN America features a poem by CL Young. 

Beauty Ditch

leaves between your sheets
always
I am thinking
what object
I am
thinking
the right side
of town
rainbows
set into your face
scaling it
like a graph
how easy it can be
to stop
let a love thing
let a light thing
WE ARE
HEY
WE ARE
IN THE LIGHT
I mean GOD
I mean I read
no matter how big
and bad this world
no matter
how many crumbs
between our teeth
god is still alone
peep show
sun dungeon
you listen
to baseball
because it helps you
stay at home
like eating food
or jerking off
onto some smooth surface
I want more silence
I want more epics
when we drive
to the ocean
we have everything
we need
we name everything
we see
scream into silos
dying barns
while the green
veins into me
then opens
like a stent
so the ocean
can swell
good little ocean
little ocean
 

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Once a week, the PEN Poetry Series publishes work by emerging and established writers from coast to coast. Subscribe to the PEN Poetry Series mailing list and have poems delivered to your e-mail as soon as they are published (no spam, no news, just poems).