In a Summer of Snipers
By Joseph RossIn a summer of snipers
some men raised their hands
with fingers pressed
Calling poets to a greater role in public life and fostering a national network of socially engaged poets.
By Joseph RossIn a summer of snipers
some men raised their hands
with fingers pressed
By Camille T. DungyThe poet's hands degenerate until her cup is too heavy.
You are not required to understand.
This is not the year for understanding.
By Sonia SanchezYour limbs buried
in northern muscle carry
their own heartbeat
By Marilyn NelsonSomebody took a picture of a class
standing in line to get polio shots,
and published it in the Weekly Reader.
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
By Kim RobertsO augury seeker,
know and be aware...
In the book of divination,
By Judith ArcanaYou read the tiny cardboard book before
you scratch the strip under Augie's New Pizza
on the back of MIA:We still don't know
By Penelope Scambly SchottBack when I used to march
in the noon of the green world,
I sang like a crow.
By Jane SeitelI wake into yet another day of doubt
creeping in as ants through a warped doorjamb.
The morning news brings new atrocities