POETRY

Three Poems

♦

By KATY LEDERER | 28 June 2016

Psychic Photography From A New Angle | c. 1900s
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​Numbers
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For I have— 
And I have 
My reach in this 
Thing— 

And I am some— 
Two men— 
That he—but he 
Did not— 

Why one—so that 
I am— 

And one had some— 
I am— 

We had some— 
If one some— 

Is that—if 
Two did— 

But all try— 
Their something: 

One did—he 
Did want to— 
​
The other did not




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Repeated Omission
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There was no— 
Probability—it— 
Hardly possible— 

All of his perilous— 
Thoroughly 
Sensible— 
No possibility— 

Otherwise capable— 
Otherwise 
Irresolute— 
His perception 
Which had—for it 

Hardly—his 
Intoxication— 
Would have him 
Beneath— 
All the— 
Evident daybreak
 
Inconsequential—the— 
Hardly 
Improbable— 
Turn of events— 

In the interim—probable— 
Inconsequential and— 
Frequently— 
Possible— 

Otherwise— 
No— 
It—is— 
Possible— 
Only— 

That merely— 
That only— 
The sensible— 
Possible— ​




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Pulling It Off 
​

He touched her— 
The table came off 

She took this— 
He did— 

It came off—and 
The table— 

Came off 
He put his hands 

Out— 
Imagine it 
​
Off—it came 
Off




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Katy Lederer is the author of the poetry collections Winter Sex (Verse/Wave) and The Heaven-Sent Leaf (BOA Editions), as well as the memoir Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers (Crown). These poems are from a forthcoming collection titled The bright red horse--and the blue--. She lives in Brooklyn.

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