Everybody wears denim. A skirt embroidered with cornflowers for Dollbaby. Jackets for the boys. A hair bow for Thunderthighs who flaps her arms above her head to scare off the scrub jay that flits between her ponytail and Bigmouth’s shoulder. Foureyes and Dogbreath have masked their faces with the flag of South Carolina. It all […]
Poetry 89
Adam Jerome Williams: Desire (Insomnia)
Once, awake in a dark room four stories above Brooklyn, I heard, clearly, the voice of a subway conductor urging his passengers to be patient, they would continue soon. It was late – a light drizzle, streets deserted, F train buried deep beneath Church Avenue. I shook the woman beside me to ask if she […]
Daneen Wardrop: The Art of War
Early morning claymation of birds clogging the backyard, low gargle of mourning dove– Trees are vaults to fit into an easy second, they pass us in swells of untightening. Touch for us, wandering for them: an eye unclutches. Inside the vacant TV screen an arm raises against– How it turns into a rip before it […]
Daneen Wardrop: Gray Ghost
At Gray Ghost, West Point, I’m shut upstairs where Maggie Lunty locks me in her bedroom with her, says she’ll never allow me to leave, will keep me there beyond Christmas, beyond when we go to fourth grade, when she gets married. She fields me when I lean toward the door, blocks me when I […]
Daneen Wardrop: Descending to the Airstrip
Descending to the airstrip on post, the Colonel flies the fighter low enough to rattle desktops in the school below, signals to his daughter in the classroom. She knows it’s hi, see you at home, spare ribs for dinner, tilt of wings to clatter pencils and chalk, teacher trying to explain continents […]
Shannon Wagner: Lore (III)
The inside of God is black. Even before His trachea caught fire it was black and stained our sleeves. We wear the dust of Him anywhere dust can get. Our teeth are black, our hands black, our cuts black and rust, our corneas starch-white. We can finger the crag of Him beneath our skin, a […]