I am a native of Enid, Oklahoma a place that feels difficult locating on a map. Oklahoma has such a vexing history regarding race, class and the rule of law. Oklahomans also love football almost as much as life itself. … Continued
Introduction In reading contemporary poetry, it is rare to be spellbound by a complete, sweeping narrative containing fully formed characters, their clashing and collaborative motivations, and the central mythology that weaves through the story. Full disclosure: I do not go … Continued
In the learning distance, in the social distance, in the lengths I’ll go to abscond with whatever I can get away with at a safe distance from your up close and personal dysfunction, in the six feet of separation from … Continued
My generation has long been a scapegoat for all the modern ails of society. From the crash of the housing market to the perceived widespread “softening” of culture, to the death of Applebee’s. Nevermind that most of us obeyed our … Continued
Children are praying, again, on sidewalks And park-gazing fences, chalking holy memes In rainbow colors to turn back the clock, To playground afternoons before the quarantine. Shall I chide them for such puerile instruction? Or grind their metaphysical lenses To … Continued
bible-belted: pandemic one why are tanning booths & beauty salons open? an exquisite corpse. bible-belted: pandemic two on south beach, millennials drink and frolic. boomers aren’t worthy of attention. bible-belted: pandemic three at a local hospital, sixty-five year olds are … Continued
Unlike predictable, protest-board-applicable-things this uncaged boomerang returns the plague. Barbs jut in the neck of a dozen deserving men. The difficult decision is to stay the course or stay alive. Let’s lock onto the horizon, see that (from this embankment) … Continued
All that is left of you are words Words you turned into colors Colors you scattered across pages Of your abbreviated life. Shades of Blue: For tears shed by angsty adolescent daughter … Continued
Life has become better, comrades. Life has become more cheerful. Joseph Stalin In the old days under Stalin they’d arrest you in the midnight hours of indifference, throw you into a concrete room lit by a bare bulb where questions … Continued
I. we are born on death row in monroeville hope valley, the south side of chi the contents of our character: civil wars that makes us sick. head, heart, memory cancerous cages of our own & others … Continued