Making History
By Marilyn NelsonSomebody took a picture of a class
standing in line to get polio shots,
and published it in the Weekly Reader.
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Across the Street from the Whitmore Home for Girls, 1949
By Rachel McKibbensThe Mad Girls climb the wet hill,
breathe the sharp air through sick-green lungs.
The Wildest One wanders off like an old cow
The Street of Broken Dreams
By Minnie Bruce PrattThe dog lunged at me and choked on its chain
guarding a house on the street of broken dreams.
What does it take to be safe? A sun-porch window
Uncivil
By Venus ThrashI am wearing a white tux with tails,
or a baby blue one with a ruffly shirt,
or decked out in classic black, or coolly
In a cornfield at the bottom of a sandstone canyon
By Sherwin BitsuiIn a cornfield at the bottom of a sandstone canyon,
wearing the gloves of this song tightly over closed ears;
the bursting sun presses licks of flame
I Will Not
By Kathy Engelwrite about the killing of Troy Davis or
the years he claimed innocence so many times
the words fell from his mouth like drops of honey.
Let Daylight Come (Little Rock, circa 2008)
By Antoinette BrimLet the moon untangle itself
from the clothesline, as coming daylight
diminishes its lamp to memory.
The Burn
By Naomi Shihab NyeSuch a swift lump rises in the throat when
a uniformed woman spits Throw it away!
and you tremble to comply wondering why
Take a Giant Step
By Jose PaduaAll the out of business auto body shops
on this slow highway, all the abandoned
buildings with peeling paint, the vacant
Portrait of Hippocrates, or Buqrat
By Kim RobertsO augury seeker,
know and be aware...
In the book of divination,