Dorothea Lasky is an American poet, born March 27, 1978. She has published three full-length collections of poetry through Wave Books and one through Liveright/W.W. Norton, along with releasing chapbooks and appearing in various literary journals. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Poetry at Columbia University School of the Arts.
ON OLD IDEAS
Dorothea Lasky
Kissing the bankteller outside his stairs
In Brighton, MA I cannot lie, I felt the hope
That we once felt, if only for an instant
O the lovely bankteller, like a moose he
Rode my spirit quite outside my clothes
And chrysanthemums sprouted I assure you
Out my nipples when he kissed them.
And the pureness of not knowing him at all
Was really what we all feel when we enter this earth.
There is a newness to the best things that cannot
Be excelled and old things like old love die and rot.
There are old ideas in the world that should be forgotten
There are old ideas and old phrases that should at least
Be recycled for others
There are old plans now that should be new.
There are old thoughts in your head, my reader, and let them die.
Follow me, I am the crusader of the new
My spirit is a plastic rod that channels all our births.
And in the mouths of the little beasts, we shall find the great
Ocean that spits up black bugs all glittering on its shores.
You know there is an anthem to the ages.
There is an anthem of the ages.
This is that anthem
This is that anthem