Tuesday poem #191 : Kiki Petrosino : OUGHT

We’ll have to hurry if we want to get started.

It’s high time to consider beginning at all.

Time, at least, to think about starting

to start. After all, we’ve only just gotten up   

& running, but now? We’re almost too late.

We’ll have to hurry. If we want to get started

we’ll have to start now. We’ll have to work

round the clock, the gold moon, right on—

We ought to think about starting, at least. But

it’s tougher than ever. We can’t even begin

to explain what it’s like. To start with, we know

we should want to hurry. At least, we’re starting

to time it. That’s almost too tough to say

at the start. Still, we’re sure we’ll begin any moment.

It’s time to get started, we think. Let’s consider

getting up & running. By then, it’ll just sort of start

& we’ll have begun. Zut alors! It’s a plan & a party!

It’s just—we should hurry. If we want to get started

we better begin. But it’s tough. Just look at the time.        

Kiki Petrosino is the author of two books of poetry: Hymn for the Black Terrific (2013) and Fort Red Border (2009), both from Sarabande Books. She holds graduate degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop. Her poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, The New York Times, FENCE, Gulf Coast, Jubilat, Tin House and elsewhere. She is founder and co-editor of Transom, an independent on-line poetry journal. She is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Louisville, where she directs the Creative Writing Program.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan