DC PLACES ISSUE Robert Lowell   JULY IN WASHINGTON The stiff spokes of this wheel touch the sore spots of the earth. On the Potomac, swan-white power launches keep breasting the sulphurous wave. Otters slide and dive and slick back their hair, raccoons clean their meat in the creek. On the circles, green statues ride like South American liberators above the breeding vegetation— prongs and spearheads of some equatorial backland that will inherit the globe. The elect, the elected . . . they come here bright as dimes, and die dishevelled and soft. We cannot name their names, or number their dates— circle on circle, like rings on a tree— but we wish the river had another shore, some further range of delectable mountains, distant hills powdered blue as a girl’s eyelid. It seems the least little shove would land us there, that only the slightest repugnance of our bodies we no longer control could drag us back. Robert Lowell (1917-1977) is the author of 16 books of poems, including Life Studies, Lord Weary’s Castle, The Dolphin, and The Mills of the Kavanaughs. His life was marked by passion and depression, with repeated hospitalizations, marital strife, and strong religious and political beliefs that led to his imprisonment as a conscientious objector during WWII and protests against the war in Vietnam—experiences that are reflected throughout his Confessional poetry. Lowell was the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. He served as Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress in Washington, DC from 1947-1948.   Published in Volume 7, Number 3, Summer 2006. credits: Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for permission to reprint. Users are warned that this work is protected under copyright laws and downloading is strictly prohibited. The right to reproduce or transfer the work via any medium must be secured with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.