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Ours Poetica curator Paige Lewis shares their poem "You Can Take Off Your Sweater, I've Made Today Warm".

Paige Lewis: https://paigelewispoetry.com/
Space Struck: http://www.sarabandebooks.org/titles-20192039/space-struck-paige-lewis

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Hi, my name is Paige Lewis and I'm going to read my poem "You Can Take Off Your Sweater, I've Made Today Warm", and when I was writing this poem I wanted to see what would happen to a speaker if they were disobeyed.

You Can Take Off Your Sweater, I've Made Today Warm

Sit on the park bench and chew this mint leaf.
Right now, way above your head, two men

floating in a rocket ship are ignoring their
delicate experiments, their buttons flashing

red.  Watching you chew your mint, the men
forget about their gritty toothpaste, about

their fingers, numb from lack of gravity.
They see you and, for the first time since

liftoff, think home.  When they were boys 
they were gentle.  And smart.  One could 

tie string around a fly without cinching it
in half.  One wrote tales of sailors who

drowned after mistaking the backs of
whales for islands.  Does it matter which

man is which?  They just quit their mission
for you.  They're on their way down.  You'll 

take both men -- a winter husband and 
a summer husband.  Does it matter which

is -- don't slump like that.  Get up, we have
so much work to do before --        wait         you're going

the wrong   way      small whelp of a woman!     this is not

        how we    behave             where are you going
 
                                                            this world is already     willing

to give you anything        do you want to know Latin

                                                                    okay     now everyone

here knows Latin     want inflatable    deer   deer!   i promise the winter/
summer children will barely hurt     dear   i'm hurt   that you would ever think


                 i don't glisten to you     i'm always glistening

tame your voice     and   turn around

the men are coming    they've traded everything for you    the gemmy starlight
     
     the click            click           click

                                                      of the universe  expanding

                                              stop
     aren't you known        aren't you
                                                known here

how can you be certain than anywhere else will provide

                                           more pears than you could ever eat

                   remember the sweet rot of it all

come back     you forgot your sweater

                           what if there's nothing there when you --

                                                 you don't have your
                                                                           
                                                                            sweater


                                                                                 what if it's cold