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Baffler Archives: Poems

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Syria Renga
Driving a flatbed truck of sheep alongside the Qalamoun hills, he   glances at the mountains and thinks of his brothers who are   still in Kirkuk. Once borders were porous, work meant crossings, for those who   are amateur refugees now, inadvertent ...

Snow Globe
January 08, 2014
This house is older than the lilac trusses glistening        in winter ice, older than the pack of Winstons on the wire chair, older than the chair as well as this glass of water        holding water. Is it ...

Breaking Stones
January 07, 2014
Beside a road in Allahabad, I saw her        breaking stones.   No tree to give her shade, A dark skin, Firm, tightly-cupped breasts, Eyes fixed on the ground, Thoughts of the night before Going through her mind, She brought down the heavy ...

Little Princess, or, the One-Eyed Girl
January 06, 2014
Her mother calls her Little Princess, Affectionately, as the name suggests. The truth, however, Is a pock-pitted, flat-nosed, bald, And one-eyed face.           Little Princess has come of age.         ...

Instantaneous
September 24, 2013
The conifer of forever Stood tall in the forest. Lumberjacks passed by And took out their saws.   The stump was forever   The elephants of forever Were shot down by poachers. Their bodies were left to Rot on the desert floor.   The tusks were forever   A ...

Ballad of Susan Smith
September 13, 2013
I put my car into reverse On a lee and lonely This will be my babies’ hearse Down by the green lake side-ee-o   I am a daughter of the Mills On a lee and lonely Young I am but doomed to kill Down by the green lake side-ee-o   I had a love I thought was true On a ...

Doppio
September 03, 2013
Latin beans through Italian machines for that perfect cup. German autos in the parking lot and Vivaldi in the coffee shop drive the cost of comfort up several cents per pound.

5:30 P.M.—Friday
September 03, 2013
Cold wind and cars stall in lines on N. Lamar. The parking lot to the “natural foods” grocery store and the “locally owned” bookstore crowds with machines that complete the escape from ignored old earth-bound time questioned by carbon dioxide leaked in a ...

The Ring of Strategic Influence
August 28, 2013
It’s sometimes valuable from a military standpoint to be able to engage in deception. Dick Cheney TRANSLATIONS PART predawn vertical insertion for invasion unlawful or arbitrary deprivation of life for killing “You always write it’s bombing, bombing, bombing. It’s not ...

There is Always Another Revolution
Behold thou art like a satellite that takes control of the planet it was orbiting; like dreams that rebel against sleep; like prisoners who take for themselves prisoners; like the fields and factories that rise up against the workers; like a God who takes his own name in vain.

Race Inauguration Day
Parades, but not-a-one in the meter of a march. There were parties. No apology. Then there were more parties.   Still many of our former owners spat at progress, at celebration, at transparency, our fought-for step up from nothingness.   Masked, we forgave them. Civil ...