Harvard Review publishes poetry, fiction, essays, drama, graphics, and reviews. It is published twice yearly, in spring and fall, by Houghton Library of the Harvard College Library. Email us for a bookstore near you.

KATY LEDERER

A Sad Harp

My little instrument, my denouement,
Pass me through to this fine place of whimsy.
I am dreaming in my head of heart, my heart then of my head.
I am dreaming in my head of books,
Of books now bent, their words destroyed.
Are we thinking of this form as harm, we derelict, we deadly?
In the basement the doctor is just getting in.
I am going downstairs to receive my first treatment.
Replacement of the brain by heart, the heart, then, by the brain.
What medical audacity.
This doctor man, this doctor man.
His hands are now playing this sad little harp.
His hands are now playing this harp.