Excerpts
I Was in the Commons Kissing, and Lucy Next to Me Kissing, Too
Both of us under one boy or another.That’s how we spent our senior year,Beacon Hill, Harvard Square,Coolidge Corner, anywherebut Belmont, or Westwood Center. Boylston Street for bongs—Reefer Madness, incense, Yardley’s makeovers,buffalo leather toe sandals—her baby was bornwith encephalocele. While I held her,I hoped she’d die, though tried to love her,four months, she didn’t grow—Lucy rocking her,cooing, passers-by …
Dear Black Barbie
I made you fuck my white Barbie even though I knew you didn’t want to. There were no whips or chains,this was a different kind of plantation fantasy. I didn’t have a Ken doll, so I made you the man. Not knowing what fucking looked like I just rubbed you against each other and made you kiss. I kept you …
Chicken Soup
for Joanna Ruth Bock Instead of your soup I picked us up a six-pack to split. But since you’re six hundredmiles away I guess I’ll drink yours too and hopeyou catch a vicarious buzz through the poem.Here’s to your health. Hey, I’m trying to make this warm and easy on the throat. Fun fact: did you know that …
Returned
for Giuliana Sgrena, Italian journalist, kidnapped in Iraq, 2005 You were trying to tell their story. Why else would you be there in that desert of bullets and covered women so far from Rome, pillars and pressed olives, cheap wine, your communist lover? You were there to tell the story of the weak, the dispossessed, …
Salmon Summers
The fishermen’s wivesdon’t have to worry aboutmen chasing tail. Two monthson the boat and the men havegone electric. That’s whatthe vets call it aftera few seasons of catchingsalmon runs. Even thegreenhorn kid gets it.By week three of summertheir bodies are programmable,minds disconnected from spineslike chickens scurrying minutesafter their heads are lopped off. There’s no place for …
Scott, Supervisor of the Dispossessed
for Scott Wiener, San Francisco Supervisor, District 8 I know this cityits namesake friarthe mystic who bled, Scott 800 years beforeall this cement& scaffolding we know the birdsin his namethe visions what to dowith this historythis minority who nowdoes the city claimas progeny the longhaired boysmelling of patchoulihis hemp spread out Nick the Wiccanin an open relationshiphis desiderata of dick pregnant Alexandraher architect …
On War Writing: A Roundtable Discussion with Donald Anderson, Doug Anderson, Matt Gallagher, Sam Hamill, Peter Molin, Marilyn Nelson, and Stacey Peebles
Gathered here around a virtual table is an eclectic assembly of thinkers who offer their responses to a series of questions and issues connected to the literature of war. DON A: Donald Anderson / DOUG A: Doug Anderson / MG: Matt Gallagher / SH: Sam Hamill / PM: Peter Molin / MN: Marilyn Nelson / SP: Stacey …
A Walking Guide to the Heart of a City
In Nazareth an excavation of the ancient city lies underneath the ground. One can walk some of the old streets on Plexiglas platforms or descend into the ruins. Just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem excavations commence in the Arab town of Silwan, believed now to be the actual ancient city of David, …
Paradise in Zurita: An Interview with Raúl Zurita
I can tell you that Raúl Zurita was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1950. That he studied engineering, then became a poet. That his early works were poignant responses to Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 military coup. That he was arrested at six in the morning on September 11, 1973, and beaten. That he was a founding member of …