Maureen N. McLane

Maureen N. McLane teaches at NYU. Her most recent book of poems is What You Want.

Poem: ‘The Reach of the Sea’

Maureen N. McLane, 2 April 2020

Beach Rose

A beach where dogs should be leashed but aren’t. Low tide strands the seaweed and two dead seals no one can call to help. There’s no one to call for help. A shore of men’s trash, twine, bits of mooring line, the house of what was once alive no I didn’t per se find my beach! but there was Brace Cove, Niles Beach, Good Harbour, Pavilion Beach if you like the...

Poem: ‘Get What You Want’

Maureen N. McLane, 5 December 2019

after Sappho, Fragment 58

You who, like undergraduates, are always younggo in for the lyredo not neglectto put your hands in the air say WAAAAAAand wave the long night endless –As for me the dawn breaksupon my tender body turningstiff, my hair from black to white –I find myself changedin this light, my hips locked,an untwerkable ass.C’est la vie, que será –

And...

One day her sister asked Mz N to have her baby. This was intriguing this was frightening as there had been no babies come thru her & to have a baby not her baby seemed a strong hard thing to split the body for. Shitting a pumpkin is what a friend of Shulamith Firestone said in the late 1960s it was like. This birth thing This birthing The midwives were gathering a sharp-eyed coven...

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