The Dictator and the Five-Color Ties
by Javid Mohamadi The dictator had a nightmare He felt kindness was necessary too.... He ordered the chains of people's feet to get a little looser!…
“Our Nation,” “Graffiti Alley,” “We the Meek,” and Other Poems
Our Nation excuse your choices through a prejudice voices disguised by socially accepted moral compasses reset by popular demand, trends change at…
“Grow Grass, Nourish Dew,” “The Whole Sky Was the Roof of My House,” “Watching Airplanes,” and Other Poems
translated by Xi Nan "The moon is my only spiritual fortune. It is also my only tomb." Grow Grass, Nourish Dew A visitor said my courtyard was…
“In Suffocating Breath,” “Requisite Damage,” and “Self-Mutilation”
In Suffocating Breath I feel the dirty secrets her lips leave. In bruises for other women to read. Her knife---the sex she says she can’t give yet…
At Time, on Tune
We parted on bad terms, Grandad and I. He wasn’t a blood relation, more of an in-law, but he was ‘Grandad’ to all of us all the same. And one evening…
“You Gotta Be Rich to Die There,” “Surgery,” and “Elastic Band”
You Gotta Be Rich to Die There The rich and famous don’t even croak the same as us. They have their own place. The Motion Picture & Television…
Four Religious Poems
To Know God, to Love God, and to Serve God I am a bowl of fruit on a shelf in a store in Chinatown, rotting--- Evaporating up and breathing sweetness…
Jude the Unshrewd
Her name was Helen--- from Australia--- and it was all a very long time ago: the late 1960s. Helen managed a shop selling eastern ethnic goods near…
“Poem for Bearded Wizard 231,” “After Listening to an Interview with Amy King in Which She Read Her Poem ‘Wings of Desire’ and Nearly Sprained Her Arm Patting Herself on the Back,” “A Poem Written by a Cranky Old Fart,” and Other Poems
Poem for Bearded Wizard 231 For a shadow-being, it’s bizarre how you know everything about everything proselytizing to social media’s lower orders…
Adam’s Curse
It was a night colder than the last, in a series for which this was true. Lighted telephone poles---tumbled masts, I---a vessel without crew. The day…
