Franny Choi
i have come & come here a thousand times,
gone by many names. trust: i am no god,

only woodworm, only termite burrowing
like a light in the flesh. i am no insect,

only an ache on loop in the window.
be honest. the wounds have been bearable

thus far. & who isn't bruised around the edges,
peaches poured into the truck bed, receipts

faded to white? i have only ever wanted to bite
down hard on whatever was offered

to my hothouse mouth. & here i am, licking corners
like a nervous cat, squirming in the hallway

outside the bathroom. i pick up the accent
of whoever i'm speaking to. nobody wants

to fuck a sponge. nobody wants to crush
on a ghost. o sure, we all do it anyway:

flickering screen; falsies batting; a story
of a story of a girl, or a country, or a clean house

where everyone knows her place. my face
is a game of telephone gone sour, or south.

fleshy marionette in the window, dancing
her awful, crooked dance. & isn't that

what you paid for? isn't that what you came
to see?                          a god, on loop, failing?
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Head shot of Laura Scott
A Debut Collection Channels Leo Tolstoy

"I knew nothing about Laura Scott when I picked this book up by chance. There is a thrill in encountering a debut collection that insists–in this case, with exceptional grace–on being read. I couldn’t put it down and have kept returning to these poems, drawn in–and on–by their beauty and clarity. It is the clarity that interests because it offers a false sense of security and lightly, deliberately, misleads."

via THE GUARDIAN
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Photograph of the cover of the anthology, "I am a Rohingya"

"As I am writing this, the USA is putting people in cages, our politicians are telling refugees to go back. What book of poetry to recommend in such a moment?   I am a Rohingya: Poetry from the Camps and Beyond is a book of poems in which refugees are given a voice."
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Apply to the 9th Annual Bread Loaf in Sicily Conference
September 22 to 28, 2019

Offering small, intensive workshops in Erice, a mountaintop town overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea. Work with poetry faculty Geoffrey Brock and Patrick Phillips to receive feedback on your original poetry or poetry translated into English. Only two spots left - Apply Now!

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