A trope is


A trope is nothing other than falling 
in love with repetition! Buy 
your girlfriend flowers that are 
metaphorical—in the sense that stars
are always metaphorical [un-
purchaseable; henceforth! anti-
capitalist [?].] Look at yourself,
you’re 265 years old and still 
breaking hearts, tenderly, 
slowly, all those good ways—with words,
words, those secret mirrors. 

Five Words for William Blake on His 265th Birthday (after Jack Spicer), S. Yarberry

Also, Tyger Quarterly, Issue 11: Fall 2024.

AG2020_1480772b- or don’t that be jazz?


Tamora’s baby came out Black, you say? Damn. The more
I hear of Aaron the Moor, the more I think: don’t that be jazz?

A note above ~ A note below ~ The note between ~
The tonic ~ Enclosed ~ Pivoted up ~ Octave ~ That be jazz.

Oh, if the bard could be Black! Her stride would be royal, jeweled toes?…?
your ideas must speak. Aaron and more. Till’s name still rises! That be jazz.

Such Sweet Thunder, A. Van Jordan


up into the silence

up into the silence the green
silence
with a white earth in it

you will (kiss me) go

out into the morning the young
mourning with a young world in it

(kiss me) you will go

on into the sunlight the fine
sunlight with a firm day in it

you will go (kiss me

down into your memory and
a memory and memory

i) kiss me (will go)

ee cummings


AG2024_1960350aa or I don’t remember the fear of that year


[…]

But on this day
we sit in that room and play cards together
while I slip my papers in the half-moon tray
and take a number, wait for someone
behind the bulletproof glass to say

take another. And I feel only love.
I don’t remember the fear of that year,
or the fear of the years that hover
before and after. I remember
the windowless room and, outside,

Beforetimes, Margot Kahn