James Arthur was born in Connecticut and raised in Canada. His debut poetry collection is entitled Charms against Lightning (Copper Canyon Press, 2012). Arthur has taught composition at Northwest Missouri State University and is an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins. He lives in the Baltimore area with his wife, the fiction writer Shannon Robinson.

Song of the Doppelgänger

by James Arthur

I was there, and saw the half-ton rope
of human hair coiled like a python,
glinting. I don’t know when the war was fought,

why, or where it stopped, but believe
in the mighty engine perspiring behind the screen
and as much as I can
in the notion of good. I find less to praise.
People on couch
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