Baffler Archives: Poems

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In the Grand Scheme of Things

Maggie Smith

September 03, 2018

Issue no. 41

It sounds like someone wound up the wrens and let them go, let them chatter across your lawn   like cheap toys, and from here an airplane seems to fly only from one tree to another, barely   chalking a line between them. We say the naked eye as if the eye could be ...

Penal Cistern Lightning Throne Lightning Rebounded

Gabrielle Calvocoressi

September 03, 2018

Issue no. 41

Back into the body all the lightning goes back into the body. Up through the crown of the skull and round again like the Whip-It at the fairgrounds. Pushing the boundaries of the light body. Overloading the light body. Silly bowl shaking above the bowl of the skull, which is a ...

Penal Cistern Lightning Throne

Gabrielle Calvocoressi

September 03, 2018

Issue no. 41

My skin sack was taken to the Hall of Pictures in the Capitol. My Zipps seemed made to slide across the marble floor. Though careful careful of my balance. So walked slow as the other kids flew by. Slow and serious skater. Past the paintings and the statues of steel men in ...

the men have brought escape

Metta Sáma

July 02, 2018

Issue no. 40

the men have brought escape they train us to plant seeds in the darkest / parts of the forest . . .

we are washed of language

Metta Sáma

July 02, 2018

Issue no. 40

we are not scaling we are hunters in this drape called body we have / hardened our old selves pricked peeled consumed . . .

No Cares Liza

Paul Legault

July 02, 2018

Issue no. 40

Repair the divine highway to L.A. / when it hurts to stay. When it hurts to go, / do a little dance to keep from leaving.

All That Is Including Me

Richie Hofmann

July 02, 2018

Issue no. 40

Our bodies presented themselves as allegories / to untangle. Then rain blurred the forest.

The Scrim

Michael Klein

July 02, 2018

Issue no. 40

The country conspires every morning to seem the morning news. / People don’t watch other people work. Work is broken.

Watching Over

Linda Hogan

July 02, 2018

Issue no. 40

This land I watch over / is a place with old stories / and plant medicine. / It is earth a mountain lion walks . . .

Further Notes on the New Reconstruction

Nikki Wallschlaeger

April 30, 2018

Issue no. 39

From the kitchens where the gas is kept / beloved are the blues shining my shoulder / old potholes . . .

[You’re supposed to thank the fumes. To be grateful]

Natalie Shapero

April 30, 2018

Issue no. 39

You’re supposed to thank the fumes. To be grateful / for the toxic patch on the rail track.

The Protagonists

Sandra Lim

April 30, 2018

Issue no. 39

At one time, / I asked for everything— / When I saw how my love was squandered, / I would secrete venom.