Vox Populi
A curated webspace for Poetry, Politics, and Nature with over 20,000 daily subscribers and over 8,000 archived posts.
Eleanor Lerman: Monday, Tuesday
In the small days, hope-worn and irredeemable,
a crust of bread under a bloody napkin is all
you will get, the morning meal in a poor hotel
On the Monday and the Tuesday, all the worried days
live under doctor’s orders, even the demons are ashamed
They have gathered up their little animals and crept away
Poor things! Now they can’t even get a decent job
And yet, life lived along the avenues is still
buying all its pretty things in the best shops
Life parading down the boulevards is still handing out
piles of the new money printed down the hall:
the best medicines, the best drugs, all being readied
for the apocalypse—on Monday, Tuesday, they will
come in every color, every shade of a blue mood
Aqueous lunar days when the sky was plowed
with stars, days of desire in the dance clubs,
days of luster, days of pearl—when was the last time
you remember our days of paradise? The days
before the demon days of pretty things ran out?
Dust and wind and broken windows: now
every day is a small revenge. The hours
used to cost a fortune but Monday, Tuesday,
can be bought without a prescription. Pain is
the new money of the apocalypse and only
old women are allowed to spend it in the shops
because that’s what they do when no one
is looking, what they buy with dust and wind,
what they hear when they hear demons’ voices
piling up behind the door that on Monday,
Tuesday, is left unlocked at the end of the hall
~~~~~
Copyright 2025 Eleanor Lerman
Eleanor Lerman is the author of award-winning collections of poetry, short stories and novels. She is a National Book Award finalist and has received a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as fellowships from the NEA and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her eighth collection of poetry, Oleander Marriage, will be published by Mayapple Press in September 2025 and a new collection of short stories, King the Wonder Dog and Other Stories, will be published by She Writes Press in 2026.
Discover more from Vox Populi
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Sorry. I misspell a lot on my phone.
LikeLike
And write proves instead of provides. Proofread. Barb!
LikeLike
After dwelling in a poem, I love to explore the comments and then dive in again. Michel proves the feast and I stay around to gobble down the commentary. Love the poem.
LikeLike
I love the poem too, Barb. Thanks!
>
LikeLike
I love the repetitive phrases and rhythms, which are chant-like, in this apocalyptic ode to how things will be, and in some places, already are. Thanks Eleanor Lerman and Michael.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, the repetition works well here. Thanks for pointing it out, Mary.
>
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am so reminded of Laura Nyro in this poet’s thoughts and execution. There’s that wonderful, ode like quality in the praises and warnings of our trappings and destiny. Destination. The poem is heading somewhere, we’re also aboard (Did she say we no longer need a prescription?) We are all “ticketless”, “Over the counter” from here on in this reality waiting on the chemistry of salvation or demise.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Interesting that you compare Lerman to Nyro in their ode-like lyricism. Thank you, Sean.
>
LikeLiked by 1 person