From the Archives: Rumpus Original Poetry: Three Poems by Luther Hughes
About storms, truly, what did I know?
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Join NOW!About storms, truly, what did I know?
...moreI learned what it means to be / an Asian woman / when I was / fucked.
...moreI am only as lonely / as anybody else, I say / at lunch downtown, examining / my worth.
...morehow many men have / passed through this room, through my lips?
...moreWhat do we do? We birth the new citizens / & answer their bodies with our bodies. // We rock the new citizens to sleep. / We clothe them with skin & stamp // their passports with milk.
...moreWhat did you hope to build in the / New country?
...moreThey look / for a lash that isn’t there, even them that never felt it. / It’s in their shoulders. / The lash lives in their shoulders.
...moreIf you really must know, the main difference / between fame and infamy is the number of / mornings / you wake up alone.
...moreOn screen, I’m peering up a faintly lit staircase and all goes grainy.
...moreGhazal: A Letter Of eight children, Mamani named you after sunlight. Since I changed my name, you try harder to tread light. Two decades ago you were Mama. But now […]
...moreTo speak of the shame is to speak of him / and his bed of lichen and his green / ribbon fastened around my throat.
...moreA Rumpus series of work by women, trans, and nonbinary writers that engages with rape culture, sexual assault, and domestic violence.
...moreI thought / you had grown angry with me but turns out / you were just lazy.
...moreit’s dark there, and wet, and time is closing in
...moreyou wake up early / & do me no good.
...moreNo human attempt / to erase [pain] is successful
...moreKate Baer discusses her new poetry collection, HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL.
...moreCynthia Dewi Oka discusses her new collection, FIRE IS NOT A COUNTRY.
...moreA Rumpus series of work by women, trans, and nonbinary writers that engages with rape culture, sexual assault, and domestic violence.
...moreI miss space, when I’m not / reading about it
...moreJeri Frederickson discusses her debut collection, YOU ARE NOT LOST.
...moreMetaphor can make life more bearable, meaningful, or simply comprehensible.
...more“…each month I embrace a kind of death within my womb that offers me a life I can live with.”
...moreThe story thrummed its bruise open and never stopped
...moreCombine multiple ingredients in a single stanza-bowl.
...moreThe ancient sapien instinct: love is an approximation to danger.
...moreThomas Hitoshi Pruiksma discusses his forthcoming translation of THE KURAL.
...moreComposition here becomes a process of discernment rather than pure creation.
...moreWhat we’re reading in our Poetry Book Club next month!
...moreSculpture—a body tearing into a body.
...more