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, The Thread is celebrating  Poetry Fridays. Each Friday in April, we will publish a selection of poetry from local independent publishing houses Graywolf Press, Milkweed Editions and Coffee House Press.

Week One


Today's selections come from Rebecca Dunham, Jack Marshall and Mai Der Vang.


             home. Through phosphate-scaled


            and floats like a ghost, silent, 


            at 13,200 ppb and the pipes moan: 


            undone. Fill a glass. Hold it


Midwinter. Refugees fleeing across borders. 


Of the present to yearning for their past


I remember my mother saying, for her as a girl


Aleppo winters were like being caught in a river


Ice. She liked her talk like her cooking, spiced.


When I once asked why she always expected


Decades later, reading in Malaparte's KAPUTT


Into the lake, the heavy guns driving them on


Frozen faces as if sliced clean by an ax


Caught in last living grimaces of terror and torment— 


On Lake Ladoga's vast sheet of white marble rested

Spirit, when I flee this jungle, you must too.


I will take our silver bars, necklace dowry, and the kettle


forged from metal scraps just after the last monsoon. 

Among the foliage, we must be ready to see


the half-decayed. You must not run off no matter how much

Nor should you wander to chase an old mate. 

Spirit, we are in this with each other the way the night geese

When I make the crossing, you must not be taken no matter what


the current gives. When we reach the camp, 


If I make it onto the plane, you must follow me to the roads

We will not ride the water today on the shoulders of buffalo


as we used to many years ago, nor will we forage

I am refugee. You are too. Cry, but do not weep. 

Arts and Culture

The Thread® - Books and Literary News

Tracy Mumford

Author

To celebrate National Poetry Month, we are showcasing weekly poems from Graywolf Press, Milkweed Editions and Coffee House Press.

Poetry Friday: War, water and migration

Go Deeper.

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