lists through snow-damp streets.
It hiccups, jolts. Cold air seeps through
sloppily jointed seams. We miss a stop,
then another. Those left behind curse the wake
of slush. I hate it here, stuck, forced
to collaborate on the future. A man
tries to sell me a rose, petals intricate
with aphids, tiny green bodies
forming a shifting embroidery.
Woman’s work. Risk assessment, selling no
as firm yet gentle self-effacement.
Another missed stop. Lice love it here,
all these scalps to redecorate. A toddler
is absorbed into celestial upholstery.
His father, desperate, searches the seat
for an entrance, probing frayed stars
and seams, then pleading with me
for help. Woman’s work. Compassion
and fabric warp and rematerializing children.
Smiling, I shrug and pull the exit cord.
Over the intercom the driver whispers
my name, coos it in a lullaby voice.
Another missed stop. Another.
Almost there, the driver sings, almost there,
you silly sop, for once, just once,
sit still and stop making everything
about you and your unremarkable loss.
from the book CONTINUITY ERRORS / Coach House Books
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Cover of Terrance Hayes's book of poetry, "So To Speak"
"On Terrance Hayes's So To Speak and Watch Your Language"

"The simultaneous release of Hayes’s two new books invites us to consider how they speak to and provide context for each other despite their obvious individual merits. Working with traditional and experimental form respectively, So to Speak and Watch Your Language both respond to an American reality that tends to forget, undermine, and attack the Black experience."

via LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS
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What Sparks Poetry:
Nathan Spoon on Language as Form


"'I Have a Vision for My Poems' belongs to a series of Sylvia Plath found poems Nazifa Islam is writing 'to dissect, examine, and explore the bipolar experience.' The poem exemplifies how Islam is using this series to openly connect with a disabled ancestor, which is important because, while various cognitive disabilities have probably existed as long as humans have, the language to frame and see them as distinct embodiments and identities has not."
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