Rumpus contributor Jesse Nathan will be reading poetry alongside Zubair Ahmed and Yosefa Raz (two other young Bay Area poets) as part of the closing reception for Impact. The event takes place this Saturday, November 19th, at Hungryman Gallery located in the Mission (485 14th St, San Francisco), from 6-10pm. The poetry reading begins at 7pm.
Poems from each of the readers after the jump.
I think death
Never means us
Any harm.
Never intends for us
To sit in circles,
And pray.
Death is a bird
Whose wings can never unfold.
He cries
In a voice so moving
We forget
What life is meant to become.
–Harmless, by Zubair Ahmed
—
I am falling through the sky.
I am talking on a cell.
They handed me it
Then pushed me out.
It was dialing you.
–Personism, by Jesse Nathan
—
Virgin wool for crushed velvet
Girl for girly.
Rapunzel for Gretel.
Gretel for Rapunzel.
Your street for my country.
Bank rate or black market?
Here they smear shoe polish on the potatoes.
Here they count coins in the dark.
Don’t be a prude.
Knowledge for pain for pleasure.
Mother for lover for father for lover.
Falsies for realsies.
Nipples for nipples.
Picnic food for sacrificial lamb.
The dollar is weak.
The dollar is strong.
Here they raped a tourist.
Here they have a better rate.
Tell them I sent you.
A bird in the hand for a lover in your pocket.
Braids cut for braids dangling.
A pencil sharpener for a house.
A prayer for a masquerade ball.
Leprosy for communion.
–Rate of Exchange, by Yosefa Raz
