Victory

By Denis Johnson
the woman whose face has just finished breaking
with a joy so infinite

and heavy that it might be grief has won
a car on a giveaway show, for her family,

for an expanse of souls that washes from a million
picture tubes onto the blank reaches

of the air. meanwhile, the screams are packing
the air to a hardness: in the studio

the audience will no longer move, will be caught
slowly, like ancient, staring mammals, figuring

out the double-cross within the terrible progress
of a glacier. here, i am suddenly towering

with loneliness, repeating to this woman's
only face, this time, again, i have not won.

Copyright Credit: Denis Johnson, "Victory" from The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly.  Copyright © 1969, 1976, 1982, 1987, 1995 by Denis Johnson.  Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Inc..
Source: The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millenium General Assembly (HarperCollins Publishers, 1995)