Sam Watson
Modern Buffalo
the shooter was mapping out the aisles for weeks
too many buffaloes
we watch how they run
on the hooves of previous days, last
week my friend’s daughter graduated from … Read more
Thirty Pieces
Thirty Pieces
the man in midnight colored cassock murmurs
God’s work is done
thirty pieces jingling
he offers a thousand hosannas
to the prophet
a little foul-mouthed and avaricious, but … Read more
For Deborah Samuel
You should have picked the salt
from my body grain
by grain before you stoned me
or at least chosen
stones of the same size
and … Read more
Who Put the Ax in Al Aqsa?
May He who makes peace in His high places, make peace upon us and upon all Israel; and say: Amen.
The Mourner’s Kaddish
It was proclaimed a heroic operation
to … Read more
Infrequent Diaper Changes
what it is to be urban
can feel fire-like
blazing as you see yourself streak down the street
showing off your swagger
women brandish vodka in coke bottles sipped through … Read more
A Trace of Light
A trace of light falls upon
the land of Ukraine where
a forgotten child is left alone
with his own private sorrows,
where God has turned His
burning eyes knowing … Read more
Kneel and Pray
I’m back to hiding under my third-grade desk
back down here with the gum
while the shirtless bully grabs for our crayons
again and demands we thank him for it… Read more
An Open Letter to Governor DeSantis
For Dr. Marvin Dunn
Sir, I read you don’t want woke citizens and signed
a bill that prohibits workplace training or instruction
that teaches people are “privileged or oppressed
based … Read more
Armed and Dangerous
She was careful not to look too long
keeping her eyes away, a hidden smile
enough to know they had created a plan
showing only her professional style
Once she … Read more
The Hymns We Used to Sing
We were civilized as we walked.
The food we’d … Read more
Night Light
Constructed cream
embedded with cutlery
missing plates,
indigo Lincoln
rumbling toward me,
landline phone
with a large black
switch, a beret
& teeth to pitch
me awake
into a curtained … Read more
The Polish Border
Your baby
looks like our baby bundled into her pink snowsuit.
Yours is zipped into a snowsuit with flowers.
You hold her up to the Red Cross worker.
The international … Read more
The Hunger Of War
They’re piling up
or splayed out
on streets
body after body
civilians
unarmed
or ill-advisedly
armed
in haste
and heroism
their meat is needed
to feed the hunger.… Read more
This little slab of horror
This terrible reason to pray
I keep stuffing my prayers
back through the glass
but the war won’t go away.
About the Poem
On a Saturday in April 2022, I … Read more