Your Father on the Train of Ghosts

John Gallaher: John Gallaher is the author of the books of poetry, Gentlemen in Turbans, Ladies in Cauls (Spuyten Duyvil, 2001), The Little Book of Guesses, winner of the Levis Poetry Prize from Four Way Books, and Map of the Folded World (The University of Akron Press), as well as the free online chapbook, Guidebook (Blue Hour Press). His poetry has been included in a volume of The Best American Poetry series, and has been chosen by Rae Armantrout for the Boston Review poetry contest. He is co-editor of The Laurel Review and GreenTower Press, as well as, with Mary Biddinger, the Akron Series of Contemporary Poetics. G.C. Waldrep: G.C. Waldrep is the author of three previous full-length collections of poems, Goldbeater's Skin (winner of the 2003 Colorado Prize), Disclamor (BOA, 2007) and Archicembalo (winner of the 2008 Dorset Prize), as well as three chapbooks, most recently "St. Laszlo Hotel" (Projective Industries, 2010). His poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Poetry, Ploughshares, Paris Review, American Poetry Review, Boston Review, New England Review, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, New American Writing, and Tin House, as well as in Best American Poetry 2010. His work has received awards from the Poetry Society of America, the Academy of American Poets, the Campbell Corner Foundation, and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, as well as a Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative Writing. He has held fellowships at Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Headlands Center for the Arts, and elsewhere. He was a 2007 Literature Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts. Waldrep earned a Ph.D. in American history from Duke University and an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He lives in Lewisburg, Pa., where he teaches at Bucknell University and directs the Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets. He also serves as Editor-at-Large for the Kenyon Review.

Table of Contents

Automated Town2
Advice to Passengers3
Your New Birthday4
The Baby Catalogues5
From Which Mortar Cities Rise6
The Anodynes7
The Archaeologists8
Anniversaries of Bad Things9
The House Rhapsody10
Elegy for the Manhattan Project11
Trade Deficit12
Your Lover, Later13
Elemental Picture of Boats in the Distance14
Elegy for the Most People15
Space to the West17
Outside the Elevator Museum18
A Short History of Friendship19
In the File of Discontinued Things20
Gun Control in the Occupation21
Cars Moving at Reasonable Speeds23
Domestic Light24
The City Experiment26
Your Father on the Train of Ghosts27
Daily Life in Classical Antiquity29
All Trains Leaving Penn Station Are Ghost Trains30
The Circus of Probable Sighs31
The Bridge at Rest33
Error as Beauty34
University Park35
Meditation on Subjects36
Red Shift37
The Frackville Angel39
Landscape with Missing Elements
40
Busman’s Holiday41
The History of Entanglements42
Elegy for Rosa Parks43
The World Is Empty & a Splash of Salts44
Candling the Bodies45
Escape Strategies46
The Great Migrations47
Your Father at the Museum48
The Sherpas of Canada49
You Need Not Be Present To Win
51
At the Marina52
And As They Waited in Their Baskets on the Hillsides It Began To Rain53
My Father in Other Places54
Movie Scene for Your Father on the Train of Ghosts55
On the Performativity of Grief as Ecstatic Culture56
Elegy for Henrietta Lacks57
The Overgrown War59
The Birthday Hand60
External Sonata61
Don’t Wear Our Your Welcome62
Winter Acknowledgments
63
The Solitary Death of the Woolworth Building64
The Night Autopsy66
Making Love in the Balloon Maze
67
In the Later Measures69
The Vanishing Days70
Scandinavian Skies71
On Your Smooth Ride72
Maybe It Has Nothing To Do With You73
The Radio Inside Your Health Plan Is Sleeping74
As Mastery Declines into Altitude & Forgiveness75
Flight of the Demolition Factory76
Aromatherapy in the Age of New Form77
Steps to Remove Limitations79
Everything You Know That Isn’t True80
Can’t You Sit Still For Once81
Different From What You Bargained For82
The Names of the Planets, & Heavy Water
83
The Carnegie System84
Box with Noise Elements
85
Halls of Fame II86
After the War, the Orchards87
How Are Things in Glocca Morra
88
Ideal Boating Conditions89
You’ll Get Nothing More from Me Today, She Said
90
Pharaoh’s Daughter (Chagall Motion Study)91
Autoreply: Nuncio92
Unheimlich Diorama94
Apology re: The Second Viennese School95
Your Father Seen From Space96
Trenton Aubade97
The Red Matter98
Ode to Lyndon Baines Johnson99
Elegy for the Developing Story101
Would You Like To Try One of Our Specials102
Limited Time Offer103
Cedar Rapids Eclogue104
Another Day at the Festival105
Ethel & Myrtle Try To Avoid How Emotional They Get106
Cesarean Selection107
Fall in Istanbul109
On a Raft, Relaxing into the West, Where We Are110
Production Still112
Your Mutual Trappist113
I’ll Decorate My House with You115
If I Die Before I Wake116
Your Hands as the Third Law of Motion117
The Other Palace118
Stolen Crutch, Wrapped in Yarn119
Your Reply Is Necessary121
Because It’s Better Not To Know
122
Your Costume Drama Is Falling123
Changes in Your Flight Plan124
Of Certain Small, Valuable Kitchen Appliances127
Baptism of Signs128
A False Sense of Well-Being129
A Short History of Kiki Smith130
Parable of the Door131
Nullstellensatz132
I’ve Been Hoping To Catch You at Home133
The Little Crisis in Summer134
The Monkey Cages in Winter135
This Is the Part Where You Whistle136
Love Is Everywhere137
Thousand-Year Reign138
One Hundred and One Best Worlds
139
Having a Sense of Purpose140
Eskimo in the Sahara141
Parable of the Anorak in the Rain142
In Praise of Hard Candy143
This Is a Wolf with Many Sharp Teeth144
On Imperialism, Part II145
Single-Celled Organism146
Sonata of Excess147
Praise Impromptu148
On the Fall of Constantinople149
The Tourist150
Approaching Helpfulness
151
Portrait While You Wait152
On Liberalism153
The Dream of Egypt154
On the Death of Andrew Wyeth155
Pain Can Warn Us of Danger156
Welcome to the Next Project157
After Music158