The Dead and the Living

Sharon Olds

Part One: Poems for the Dead

I. PUBLIC
Ideographs
Photograph of the Girl
Race Riot, Tulsa, 1921
Portrait of a Child
Nevsky Prospekt
The Death of Marilyn Monroe
The Issues
Aesthetics of the Shah
Things That Are Worse Than Death

II. PRIVATE
The Guild
Grandmother Love Poem
The Eye
Birthday Poem for My Grandmother
Of All the Dead That Have Come to Me, This Once
Farewell Poem
The Winter After Your Death
Miscarriage
The End
Best Friends
Absent One

Part Two: Poems for the Living

I. THE FAMILY
Possessed
The Victims
The Forms
The Departure
Burn Center
The Ideal Father
Fate
My Father Snoring
The Moment
My Father’s Breasts
The Takers
The Pact
The Derelict
Late Speech with My Brother
The Elder Sister

II. THE MEN
The Connoisseuse of Slugs
Poem to My First Lover
New Mother
The Line
The Fear of Oneself
Poem to My Husband from My Father’s Daughter
Sex Without Love
Ecstasy

III. THE CHILDREN
Exclusive
Six-Year-Old Boy
Eggs
Size and Sheer Will
For My Daughter
Rite of Passage
Relinquishment
Son
Pre-Adolescent in Spring
Blue Son
Pajamas
The Killer
The Sign of Saturn
Armor
35/10
The Missing Boy
Bread
Bestiary
The One Girl at the Boys’ Party
The Couple