Balladz

Also by Sharon Olds

Arias

Odes

Stag’s Leap

One Secret Thing

Strike Sparks: Selected Poems, 1980–2002

The Unswept Room

Blood, Tin, Straw

The Wellspring

The Father

The Gold Cell

The Dead and the Living

Satan Says

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

Copyright © 2022 by Sharon Olds

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto.

www.aaknopf.com

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Olds, Sharon, author.

Title: Balladz / Sharon Olds.

Description: First Edition. | New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2022.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022001788 (print) | LCCN 2022001789 (ebook) | ISBN 9780525656951 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781524711610 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780525656968 (ebook) Subjects: LCGFT: Poetry. Classification: LCC PS3565.L34 B35 2022 (print) | LCC PS3565.L34 (ebook) | DDC 813/.54—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2022001788 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2022001789

Ebook ISBN 9780525656968

Cover art by Sam Messer

ep_prh_6.0_141463709_c0_r0

for Brenda Hillman and for Robert Hass

Contents

Acknowledgments

1 Quarantine

Quarantine Morning

May 14, 2020

My Hand

Quarantine

8 Steps of 2 Steps Down

After

Anatomy Lesson for the Officer

My Head and My Mother’s Breast in Quarantine Together

Centipede

Yes

Quarantine Argiope

Not Once

Meditation During the Sufferings and Deaths of Others

Before the Electric Traps Arrived

Isolation Liverwurst

Quarantine Fast

Narcissus Takes Another Look at Household Tasks

Monday, November 2, 2020

Quarantine Puzzle

Narcissus in Quarantine

339th Morning of My Easy Quarantine

X-Ray & Rats

New Year’s Song

Sprung Trap

Spotted Aria

When I Looked Out

A Song Near the End of the World

2 Amherst Balladz

1 “Let us Play -Yesterday -”

2 “You did not Sell -the Blueing -”

3 “I Did not Shave -to Visit your Town -”

4 “I Slept -in your Town -behind a Door”

5 “In one Double-Glaze Pane -”

6 “The air -was Close -the Pane -slid High -”

7 “Outside your Room -in the Wain’s Coat -”

8 “At the center of your Room -”

9 “No Jack I -Nor killed a Joint -”

10 “When I came to Emily’s -House -late -”

3 Balladz

Best Friend Ballad

Ballad of the Chair

Grandmother, with Parakeet

Paper Doll Ballad, for Fats

Crazy Sharon Talks to the Bishop

Ballad of Once Mike Carter

Cuckoo Ballad

Joined Ballad

Snap Pants Off Like

Spectrum Ballad

Ballad of the Blossoming Branch

Ballad of EIGHMIWAY

Subway Ballad

Dear Stanley,

Ballad Torn Apart

Geraldine Dodge Ballad

Ms. Turbation

Not Extinct Yet

Hair Ballad

Rubber Shower Mat Ballad

Handkerchief Ballad

Epidermis Ballad

4 Album from a Previous Existence

Part One

If I Had Been Able

Genesis

My Mother’s Meat Grinder

Her Portrait

Bad & Crazy

When They Told Me God Could Read My Mind,

Tender Bitter