both by James Tate
The first... well... how could it go wrong with 'Booby' in the title. But still... a strangely moving poem about something you (well, I, anyway) wouldn't normally consider poetic.
The second one I still don't understand (but I may eventually)
"The Blue Booby"
The blue booby lives
on the bare rocks
of Galapagos
and fears nothing.
It is a simple life:
they live on fish,
and there are few predators.
Also, the males do not
make fools of themselves
chasing after the young
ladies. Rather,
they gather the blue
objects of the world
and construct from them
a nest—an occasional
Gaulois package,
a string of beads,
a piece of cloth from
a sailor’s suit. This
replaces the need for
dazzling plumage;
in fact, in the past
fifty million years
the male has grown
considerably duller,
nor can he sing well.
The female, though,
asks little of him—
the blue satisfies her
completely, has
a magical effect
on her. When she returns
from her day of
gossip and shopping,
she sees he has found her
a new shred of blue foil:
for this she rewards him
with her dark body,
the stars turn slowly
in the blue foil beside them
like the eyes of a mild savior.
The second poem I couldn't find in text form so you'll just have to follow the link and search for it on the page:
"Rape in the Engineering Building"
http://books.google.com/books?id=EjkBAyHa514C&pg=PR5&lpg=PR5&dq=%22James+Tate%22+%22rape+in+the+engineering+building%22&source=bl&ots=s7P8kgQeB3&sig=s7K6CloUMeeMlR9RwV8fDadzwKg&hl=en&ei=gEmfTd_0FuzRiAKj67yJAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
