IS THIS REAL.

• Author: Ostriker, Alicia
• Position: Poem

Let me see, is this real Let me see, is this real Let me see, is this real This life I am living. --Navajo prayer Nose in that book/ white lightning but/ no eagle no galloping horse/I was twenty lacking enough silence/ no spacious cactus vista/ nevertheless yes yes white lightning this question ozone year chases year wishing I had a tribe to tell me the answer no answer/ asking myself no answer/ asking God asking in my pajamas aching/ asking in my silks lifting the cocktail asking sidewalk sycamore is this real/ men foraging in wastebaskets is this real the suffering and anger in city air thickening every year is it real my white apartment/ is it real my sixty year...