Self
by Dan Chiasson

Found not founded. Attacking only
from the back
like the Bengal tiger; afraid

of the face. Sweet-talking like the addict
coveting
another addict's stash. Fished from

my own trash like the feared
letter I heard later
held a birthday check.

Watched like the tiger from
a great height,
hollered out. Two-faced, masked

like the villager tricking
the tiger. Tricked
like the tiger. Founded on owned ground.
---------------------------------------------------
The Afterlife of Objects, Dan Chiasson's first
collection of poems, was published in 2002 by the
University of Chicago Press.
He has just finished his second book of poems, Natural History,
as well as a book of criticism. Mr. Chiasson was born and
raised in Vermont, and has a BA from Amherst College. In
1999, he was a Whiting Foundation Fellow in
the Humanities while finishing his dissertation at Harvard.
A winner of a Pushcart Prize, his poems have appeared in
such magazines as The Paris Review, Ploughshares, Threepenny
Review, and The New Yorker. Mr. Chiasson was an Assistant
Professor of English and Director of the
Poetry Center at SUNY Stony Brook.

The Afterlife of Objects at:
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/
cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/15354.ctl

Poetry and articles by Chiasson at
slate.com