Poem of the Week selected by Jerry T. Johnson:
“In The Land of Second Chances” poetically encapsulates the occasional, wishful desire to live in another time and another place. Succinctly written, it expresses deep undercurrents of many sentiments throughout the poem while opening a door of hope at the end.
Poem of the Week
Aileen Bassis
In The Land of Second Chances
you always have an umbrella
and the ATM says your account
has lots of money, do you want
that cash in twenties or fifty
dollar bills? In the land
of second chances, black teens
stroll through a mall and stores
don’t lock the doors and black
men lope through suburbs and no
one calls the cops and in the land
that isn’t here and in a time
that isn’t now, police don’t
shove black bodies
to the ground and bones won’t
break and blood won’t stain sidewalks
but stay where it belongs, pumping
into each heart and arteries and veins.
In the land of second chances
air swoops into lungs
and out and in again
in a beat as constant as day
falling into night and morning
light strokes a hand across
each face and eyes open
to a song waiting for your lips.
***
Aileen Bassis is a widely exhibited visual artist and poet in New York City. Her use of text in art led her to explore writing.
Honorable Mention
Jennifer Juneau
Grub Hub Rant
After placing my food order
I see I ordered two bags of dirty chips by accident
Instead of one bag of chips and a diet coke
So I call the restaurant
And the chef says, yes Jennifer, I see your order
And yes Jennifer one bag of chips one coke no problem
And I correct him, ‘diet’ because, you know, along
With the fried vegan schnitzel and the chips, excuse me,
Dirty chips
You need diet coke as if it matters
And it matters
And he hems and haws
I bet he’s thinking I’m thinking it’s the end of the world
If my order is wrong
And it is
The end of the world
Sometimes
And it is the end of the world in my nighttime glitches of pandemics and police brutality
And stupid poems about food
And I find myself getting all made up for the delivery guy
Cause, where else do I go? I sit in my west village studio all day
And piss and moan and sometimes write
About, about, grub hub orders being wrong
And so expensive, I mean expansive, and my phone suddenly rings
And it’s the chef this time he’s calling me asking me what kind of chips I wanted
Sour cream, salt & vinegar, salt & pepper, cheddar—
And I stop him right there and say salt & pepper and he says with the coke?
And I correct him ‘diet’ and he’s says very good
And I’m thinking he’s thinking he had to call me back to check because it feels like
The end of the world if I got the wrong chips and this time I think that he seriously thinks
It is the end of the world and it is, sometimes
And it feels so good, so fucking good
That we’re all in this together
***
Jennifer Juneau is the author of the novel UberChef USA (Spork Press, 2019). Her work appears in Cincinnati Review, Columbia Journal, Seattle Review, and elsewhere.
Honorable Mention
Steven Ostrowski
Historical
It’s hard times in history again.
Somber news every hour on the hour.
I’m driving along the boulevard
of going nowhere.
Last night my bag of masks
was stolen out of the backseat.
Even the telephone-wired birds look baffled.
Anyone can see they’re eating less.
Not to mention the broken weather cycle.
Look at how our messy footprints
carbon up the once-green carpet.
*
Somehow, all’s well anyway. The day
passes. The breeze along the streambed
makes the leaves of the skunk cabbages
lift like the wings of some strange green bird.
***
Steven Ostrowski is a poet, fiction writer, painter, songwriter, and teacher. His work is widely published. Along with his son, Ben, he is the author of Penultimate Human Constellation, from Tolsun Books.
As we restart our reading series in zoom format this summer, our Poem of the Week and Flash Fiction of the Month contests will end in June 2020. We have one more Flash Fiction of the Month to be posted on June 28. Submissions close on Thursday June 25.
Thank you to everyone for sharing your work.
Our print anthology is open to writers worldwide and submissions are welcomed from October 15, 2020.