4-poetry

Issue 4, Summer 2021 Poetry

The 2021 Prize Winner in Poetry, selected by Douglas Manuel:

April is the Cruelest Month | Pamela Sumners

I was watching the trial of a white cop
who put his knee on a Black man’s neck
for almost 10 minutes but my viewing
displeasure was interrupted by breaking
news of a white cop who shot a Black man
and then later on the 10 o’clock news I saw
two white cops taunt a Black guy dressed
in Army fatigues and pepper-spray him

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From the Stem | Daniel J Flosi

Charles Darwin hypothesized that language emerged from a song-like proto language.

look! down the misty hillside 
our ancestors 
work the soil 
while soughing trees 
prattle on about their mysteries

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American Diorama | Naomi Ling

              after Ocean Vuong

              “I am an American; free born and free bred, where I
              acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own
              worth, or as my inferior, except for his own demerit.” 
              Theodore Roosevelt

Let this be a story of light. Tonight the TV 
              speaks little tragedies into 
existence, throws 
                            home across faceless soil. 

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Other Good Stuff…