a woman passing as a pecan
a woman breaking open a pecan and
passing as its beige meat.
a woman passing as a fig tree's bark
a woman passing as a fig
a woman passing as swamp water after rain,
and a man passing as a pinewood floor.

a man passing as a piano
his voice passing as honey-colored notes
floating above a crowd of masked revelers,
a man passing as cypress
a man passing as the prow of a ship run aground
a man passing as a bowl of clabber
or a bowl of molasses.

have you ever heard of such a country
where a woman passes for an oak banister
and a man passes for a leather-bound Bible,
or a book of law?

what you see here is a true phenomenon:
a man is disguised as a shoe in need of polishing
and a woman is burnished and heavy as a worn saddle.
little boys and girls are made of dried sassafras,
nutmeg, burnt flour, and clam shells.

hold one of our small, round babies in your hands
and see how it turns into a chicken's egg before
your eyes.

Note “a foolish controversy over the color of the skin” takes its title from a quote by poet,
journalist, and activist Rodolphe Desdunes, who wrote Our People and Our History: A Tribute
to the Creole People of Color in Memory of the Great Men They Have Given Us and of the
Good Works They Have Accomplished.
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"Joy Harjo Is Named U.S. Poet Laureate for a Second Term"

"In her second term, which starts Sept. 1, Harjo will focus on a project called “Living Nations, Living Words: A Map of First Peoples Poetry,” a digital interactive map featuring contemporary Native poets, including videos of them reading their work. It will be added to the Library’s historical collection of maps, which is among the largest in the world. After the coronavirus pandemic began, Hayden said, Harjo’s project “had even more resonance, in terms of telling stories and using poetry therapeutically."'

via THE NEW YORK TIMES
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Miller Prize for Poetry

New Letters invites you to submit one to six poems to the Patricia Cleary Miller Prize for Poetry. The winner will receive $2,500 and publication in New Letters.  All entries are considered for publication and must be unpublished.  Winners will be announced mid-September 2020.  For complete guidelines, visit New Letters.
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