Rumpus Original Poems
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National Poetry Month Day 6: Wendy Chin-Tanner
AFTER LIKUNT DANIEL AILIN Sculpture by Kehinde Wiley, 2013
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National Poetry Month Day 3: Adam McGovern
Perseid meteors, 2015 I went to dig for falling stars alone in a shadowed field
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National Poetry Month Day 2: Paula Bohince
THE FLINT RIVER Like the Lethe, which says Forget, or the one in Egypt, a river will take into itself what is offered: run-offs, toxic
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National Poetry Month Day 30: “Jubilate Patro” by Brian Spears
Jubilate Patro For I will consider my father SamFor he praises God in his mumbles and circular storiesFor his left arm is crooked to remind him of original sinFor half his brain was cut off from blood when he was…
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National Poetry Month Day 29: “City of Eternal Spring” by Afaa M. Weaver
City of Eternal Spring My mind rises up as the silos of interchanges, streams, passages of myself in floating layers so nothing can connect, and I dream emptiness on ships sailing to new places for new names, this ship my…
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National Poetry Month Day 28: from “Bombyonder” by Reb Livingston
from Bombyonder Without an imaginary world, without a proper backpack, without my little pink orb, without an old tablet’s commandments, without a hair dryer, empty hands, empty birdcage obscured by a crate of empties. Left without a predictable choice, without…
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National Poetry Month Day 27: “Prodigal Electrons Return to Shine” by Matthew Zapruder
Prodigal Electrons Return to Shine is the name of the movie she wants to see, the first the daughter of a famous director whose plots to her always seemed designed for others with more sophisticated problems made, about a man…
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National Poetry Month Day 26: “Everything Twice” by Rae Gouirand
Everything Twice Pinkened quince with potatoes, cold for breakfast. Stones by the door I’ve pocketed the last year. Too bright today to see the road. One blue for the sky, one for the hills, no shadows. The spoons and how…
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National Poetry Month Day 25: “Rogue Benediction” by Wendy C. Ortiz
Rogue Benediction And we entered the Valley of the Rogue. And we slowed to a crawl. The night’s envelope sealed us in. After several hours, cars deep on the interstate, we resigned ourselves: this first night would be the gateway,…
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National Poetry Month Day 24: “After Aftermath” by Cate Marvin
After Aftermath Orphaned boys plus my mean calculations. Orphan boys plus desire equals their long bodies. How they sucked summer-long water off a garden hose from beside the trailers. Their mean mothers weary of them sharing rooms in mental hospitals:…
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National Poetry Month Day 23: “Embers of Smoldering Homes” by Sean Singer
Embers of Smoldering Homes It is a major war from a manufacturing plant near Ciudad Juárez, a concrete dust smell from the maquiladoras cools. There is a pool of liquid forming on the stone floor. When Érika Gándara, the only…
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National Poetry Month Day 22: “The Great Loves of Our Lives” by Julie Enszer
The Great Loves of Our Lives Begin with the body desire manifests itself in the body: the flutter of the heart the nervous shake of a hand the dilation of the pupils hardening of nipples thickening of mucus within the…