ISSUE 16
May 2001

Kris Kahn

 

Kris Kahn has studied poetry and literature at The New School University in New York City, as well as Rutgers University, where he is working toward a degree in English. In the past, he has co-edited a collaborative poetry journal, Drowning, and is now co-editor of Sometimes City, an online poetry journal. He lives in New Jersey.

etymology    Click to hear in real audio


etymology, you
say, is the study of the
beginning / and since

you so closely relate
yourself to an explosion
of brimstone big bang,
you want to think you are
as timeless as cilia,
as intuitive as bacteria.

if we cut you in half now

just like the word
we are arguing about here
dissecting it until it is
nothing but those two fangs
of it that i see and you
do not

would you dissolve in vinegar
or turn to petrol in my
hand, have you come that far,

adapted/adopted
that instinct in this instance

carnivore.

 

 

Kris Kahn: Poetry
Copyright � 2001 The Cortland Review Issue 16The Cortland Review