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Take the I Out
By Sharon Olds
But I love the I, steel I-beam
that my father sold. They poured the pig iron
into the mold, and it fed out slowly,
a bending jelly in the bath, and it hardened,
Bessemer, blister, crucible, alloy, and he
marketed it, and bought bourbon, and...
The City in Which I Love You
By Li-Young Lee
And when, in the city in which I love you,
even my most excellent song goes unanswered,
and I mount the…
I Don‘t Like Poetry
By Joshua Seigal
I don’t like similes.Every time I try to think of onemy brain feels like a vast, empty desert;my eyes…
Cyrus & the Snakes
By Ada Limón
My brother holds a snake by its head. The whole
            length of the snake is the length

of my brother’s body. The snake’s head
            is held safely, securely, as if my brother

is showing him something in the distant high grass.
            I...
The Magnificent Frigatebird
By Ada Limón
Is it okay to begin with the obvious? I am full of stones—
is it okay not to look out this window, but to look out another?

A mentor once said, You can't start a poem...
Calling Things What They Are
By Ada Limón
I pass the feeder and yell, Grackle party! And then an hour later I yell, Mourning dove afterparty! (I call the feeder the party and the seed on the ground the afterparty.) I am getting so good at watching that...
Gratitude
By Cornelius Eady
I’m here
to tell you
an old story.
This
Appears to be
my work.
I live
in the world,
Walk
the streets…
I’m a Fool to Love You
By Cornelius Eady
Some folks will tell you the blues is a woman,
Some type of supernatural creature.
My mother would tell…
The Bug Wrangler
By Mike Doughty
He was jailed for cruelty to insects, and his agent wasn’t answering the phone, so he stayed awake in the cell all night, pictures jumping around his head of the cops and the blowdryer they took as evidence. He used...
Self-Portrait as David Lynch
By David Roderick
I wear a flower in my lapel.
I like the sweetness of its lie in my nose.
A carnation, the fool’s flower,

its heart a wilting empire.
In late-night editing sessions,
I imagine I’m planting flowers

in the sockets of eyes. Whatever helps
me reach our rigor...
Marigolds of Fire
By Ama Codjoe
1.

He had a caribou's face. Once he let me
lick the sadness there. It tasted of salt

and moss-covered rocks. He grew the beard
of a mountain goat. He scaled the face

of a mountain. Lying beside him, I stared
into the face of faceless...
Crip vs. Crip
By Walela Nehanda
Crip (noun): slang for a disabled person/the whole of
the disabled community/
a school of thought
Example: “I’m on crip time”
Meaning: Time bends differently when the universe that is
my body dictates it

Crip (noun): a Black gang that originated in...
XLIX. ("its a secrete")
By Jos Charles
its a secrete

the grls speeching mye hole /

inn 2 the lindens / wee go out

& playe footballe / verie nashenallie

how wee leeve a stall / piteus

wen the grls

speech me /

this is how u make a porno / ...
Into the Weeds
By Kevin Prufer
The brutality of those two men
who broke into her apartment
and murdered her boyfriend,
...
I Have Wasted My Life
By Justin Phillip Reed
There it goes, thin thing,
cheshiring between trees
whose reaper-robes trail
...
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Can You Describe Your Years in Prison?
By Aria Aber
Over Skype, I try to document my mother’s
bald-shaved youth—she has a surplus in truths,
and science has proven what it had to prove:
every helicopter-screech I dreamed of was my mother’s first.
Rippling my dumb hand, I wake up in childhood’s crypt,
where prayer...
Bollywood Confabulation
By Rajiv Mohabir
Look at your feet, so beautiful. Do
not step on the ground, filth will smear them;

your future will fill with pricks. He with a
fearful heart, understand dead. Death will dance

on your head — lift your eyes and see. I am
its servant,...
The Republic of Motherhood
By Liz Berry
I crossed the border into the Republic of Motherhood
and found it a queendom, a wild queendom.
I handed over my clothes and took its uniform,
its dressing gown and undergarments, a cardigan
soft as a creature, smelling of birth and milk,
and I lay...
Frankenstein Love
By Matthew Zapruder
I think there was a movie once
where Frankenstein fell in love with a vampire.
A small mummy at first interfered
but later provided the requisite necessary
clarifications. He can only
meet you at night. Her face
is scarred in a permanent expression
of doom, but her...
The Skokie Theater
By Edward Hirsch
Twelve years old and lovesick, bumbling
and terrified for the first time in my life,
but strangely hopeful, too, and stunned,
definitely stunned—I wanted to cry,
I almost started to sob when Chris Klein
actually touched me—oh God—below the belt
in the back row of the...

Quick Tags

Explore Poems: Metaphor

Take the I Out

The City in Which I Love You

I Don‘t Like Poetry

Cyrus & the Snakes

The Magnificent Frigatebird

Calling Things What They Are

Gratitude

I’m a Fool to Love You

The Bug Wrangler

Self-Portrait as David Lynch

Marigolds of Fire

Crip vs. Crip

XLIX. ("its a secrete")

Into the Weeds

I Have Wasted My Life

Can You Describe Your Years in Prison?

Bollywood Confabulation

The Republic of Motherhood

Frankenstein Love

The Skokie Theater