Litigators
He gets up there and—yeah, another litigant Love that litigant—or, maybe not—write the Next! next litigant—bring on the Here—lemme litigate—a tad Litigational—that’s the quality we’re looking for Floats—giant swans—flotillas—on still waters Music from a giant conch shell Don’t feed the litigators Y’all assin’ it to a seat—or—propped up on feat Don’t feed the litigators Snout—peeking […]
Lover’s Trilogy
(N.B. line breaks may be changed if viewed on a small screen) I. PHOTOBOOTH You spent the last decade fighting with a beautiful woman I spent it asleep in a down cocoon Dreaming of David Bowie swimming and swimming Infinitely negotiating elation and genders There is much to be gleaned from red versus green virtues […]
from SUMMER
Follow my voice follow my voice I follow your voice into the malignant trousseau into poetry I follow the rabble the voices the birthmark on your torso: a puncture wound a sign for syre I don’t want the butterflies to die in the rabble so I take my headphones off s o I take my […]
Lonesome Cowboys
This is an ekphrastic poem by Lonely Christopher responding to the film “Lonesome Cowboys” by Andy Warhol. This film is considered by many to be Warhol’s last (the artist has a notoriously vast and enigmatic filmography). Notably, it is one of the few he shot outside of his factory, trading its aluminum-foil padded walls for […]
South Asian Forms of Public Poetry Performance and the Ghazal: From Romance to Revolution
I was in my mid-twenties when I immigrated from Pakistan to the US, landing in Manhattan. Fresh off the boat, as the saying goes, I never expected to be attending a mushaira in New York, yet there I was, in the packed, smoke-filled conference hall at the Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan, giddy with excitement […]
The Family Teeth
After our mother died, The Father began to go through his reporting papers and the heaps and hills of family documents kept in a large wooden chest from Mexico, locked with a giant iron lock and key. The chest, part of the spoils from their years abroad, smelled of candle wax and toasted wood. He […]
The Searchers
Back when Suez was a hot topic, it wasthe Gladiator of Tennessee vs. the Alabama Murderer,and my fella took a few blows but knocked out the champ,defeated in Montgomery, in record time!The amateurs all came looking.If you want victory, I said, you must train like him, eat like him, and then you must become him, […]
A Natural History of Cruising
* * An attractive figure rounds the corner. Is he? Yes, very. Your gaze locks in his. The moment dilates. Take in the hooded eyes, the aquiline nose. Zero the body. You feel a flush of arousal, a stirring below. Your pulse grows palpable. The mouth wets but you can’t swallow. * * […]
