Poems and Texts

Excerpt from “Universe” by Diana Hamilton

from Universe

*
“Please don’t scream, sir,”
he said, “when I cut your hair.
You have to be quiet!”
*
Refuse to speak of the world as round
because—
in spite of the good evidence of roundness—
a feeling
of confidence
has not been produced.
*
“Shut the door.”
*
“I want you to shut the door.”
*
If I say “Shut the door”
and you say
(to the same person)
“do not shut the door”
we are not contradicting one another;
and this is odd.
*
“You are not going to shut the door.”
*
“I believe that you are going to shut the door.”
*
“You are going to shut the door.”
*
“The Health Service has done a lot of good.”
*
“I want you to the shut the door.”
*
Everyone knows
that the Health Service has averted a lot of pain, anxiety,
&c.
*
“Shut the door.”
*
The minister of Local Government expresses approval
of my town plan
by getting his underlings to write
to me saying
“The Minister approves of your plan.”
*
“You are going to shut the door.”
*
“The minister thinks your plan is the best one.”
*
“I believe that you are going to shut the door.”
*
“The minister thinks your plan is the best one.”
*
“I believe that you are going to shut the door.”
*
I hire
a private detective
(wronging him).
*
“Shut the door.”
*
The private detective observes
the Minister
for signs of emotion.
*
“I want you to shut the door.”
*
Either you are going to shut the door,
or something bad will happen to you.
*
“Shut the door,”
or you burn.
* * *

Diana Hamilton

Diana Hamilton is the author of three books—God Was Right (Ugly Duckling Presse), The Awful Truth (Golias Books), and Okay, Okay (Truck Books)—and four chapbooks. She writes poetry, fiction, and criticism about style, crying, shit, kisses, dreams, fainting, writing, and re-reading. You can walk through audio recordings of her dreams in the first-person shooter by Alejandro Miguel Justino Crawford in Diana Hamilton’s Dreams (Gauss PDF). Her poetry and criticism have appeared in BOMB, Frieze, Art in America, Lambda Literary, and Social Text Journal, among others. She received her PhD in Comparative Literature from Cornell University, and she currently works as the Director of Baruch College’s Writing Center.