"The Views," Albert Goldbarth

Their party--a various dozen of them, a vicar,
a tough young streetjack, a lady's waiting maid, etc.--
had been kidnapped from the ferry by a raiding ship,
and that was attacked by enemy cannon, and then
their adventures really began. It's dawn now,
and they wake on the other side of a day of long trek
through the villages of this mountainous, alien land.
They're in an abandoned plaza. Overnight, a number
of their belongings have disappeared: some purses, food bags.
In the nearer vista, the ruin of a temple spills the morning
light like burning brandy over its marble lip. The world
is a large and marvelous place, someone is thinking reverently,
strange, and visibly miracled. One slaps his pocket: wallet gone.
Jezusfukkinchrist, he says, the same old story everywhere you go.

From Budget Travel Through Space and Time.

Last Sunday, Kathleen Johnson (Kansas City Star) heralded Budget Travel as a "riveting read" with "overpowering emotional range and depth." Other poems from the collection online include Scale-Model Sketch" from the Virginia Quarterly Review and "heart heart heart heart heart heart heart" from the Beloit Poetry Journal. In addition to noting Goldbarth's second NBCC award three years ago, Slate has also published "This Scene Before."