Kenny avoided prison after school.
“It’s a horrible little planet,” he said.
The drugs were hidden inside a hollowed-out copy of William James’s Principles of Psychology (unabridged). Carlos stole the book. Carlos was interested in psychology. He threw away the …
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Visibility is powerful. And dangerous. If you’re not a white, heterosexual, male, cisgender Christian in America (or married to one), visibility can cost you your job, your family, your friends, your church, your life. I’m reminded of lines from an …
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I arranged ten desks in a circle in preparation for students the first day of my undergraduate poetry workshop. It was fall 2011—my first semester teaching in the English department at the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa. The students filed in, …
Read MoreWhat do you do—as a critic—when you encounter a writer so gladdeningly cajoling, so sweetly weird that you’re convinced anyone who read him deeply and carefully would be delighted; but who also, stylistically, can be studiously bizarre in a way …
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We were in the last year of college. My younger brother was in the first year. All my free time went in going around the bazaar. It had become a habit. I quite enjoyed it. In college, in the evening, …
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Video poem by Terrance Hayes, directed by Radiclani Clytus
On the eve of the 157th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, National Book Award–winning poet Terrance Hayes collaborated with RoundO Films to reflect on the historical realities that preserve the Lowcountry …
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Sticky Note to the Moon
What a dust bunny you are in space.
America hacked into you, put a flag on your face.
You are not the sun, duh.
You white twisty tie on a bagged day.
You …
The Murmuring Grief of the Americas
You are on the ground, wrapped in a ratty blanket at the edge of the cage. The interpreter wedges her way into the corner. She sits on her knees, brings her head to …
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Harakiri
Yukio Mishima, why did you kill yourself like that? Why did you slowly plunge the sword into your insides and turn it? Why did you sit breathing in your slow death, watching your blood drain onto the floor—without …
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