Nathan Kemp

Worship

 

 

I’m in awe.

I may have

 

the facts

wrong.

 

The gist

of it is,

 

that for twenty-five years

I was an adolescent.

 

I didn’t know it

but I was.

 

I didn’t know it

but I was

 

a labyrinth,

a circuitous thing.

 

I do not know

where I’m going.

 

I have a scrap of

mysterious process

 

and a purpose.

I can practically quote it

 

verbatim. Well, basically,

only three things:

 

we’re just specks,

it’s your job to carry on,

 

it’s like window shopping.

I’m very literal.

 

Quite literal.

I peel

 

an orange. I mean,

peel

 

an orange.

It’s about the most

 

amazing experience

on earth.

biography

NATHAN KEMP’s forthcoming chapbook, Gnomic Verse, won the 2014 Dream Horse Press Poetry Chapbook Prize. His work appears in Columbia Poetry ReviewPaper Darts, Cream City Review, and Hobart, among others. He is a contributing poetry editor for Barn Owl Review. He lives in Denver, Colorado.