Poetry Saturdays: Rita Dove

Born in 1952, Rita Dove is the second African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (after Gwendolyn Brooks), and has twice served as Poet Laureate of the United States.

Wiring Home

Lest the wolves loose their whistles
and shopkeepers inquire,
keep moving, though your knees flush
red as two chapped apples,
keep moving, head up,
past the beggar’s cold cup,
past the kiosk’s
trumpet tales of
odyssey and heartbreak-
until, turning a corner, you stand,
staring: ambushed
by a window of canaries
bright as a thousand
golden narcissi.