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Before They Came For Us | Civilian Exiting the Facilities | Table for Six
They met in the woods below our homes, brought their sawed-off shotguns and
Idra Novey
Faust 1972
This time, Faust was a nursing mother --
Sharon Olds
Arrow Boy
They see her as a genie in a pager.
Martha Serpas
Zen Dictionary
In the Zen Dictionary, intention
Dick Allen
Ars Polis
way too human too fast way too boring too quick
Andrei Codrescu
Home Life
I was sitting still in an armchair
Billy Collins
Firing My Father’s Mossberg
At the shooting range,
Dzvinia Orlowsky
ANY SINGLE THING | OFFERS OF SKY | THE EQUATION MUST BE BEAUTIFUL
At the shooting range,
Rosmarie Waldrop
Carbide
As he approached the river a little Fiat drew off the main road and parked among
A.L. Snijders
Snow Day, by Jerome Sala
The camera in the other room points and clicks
Jerome Sala
Pink is the Navy Blue of India
Flea market guy tells me the pornos are five dollars
David Kirby
Reflection
I am a lion
Eliza Griswold
The Bird that Begins it
In the world-famous night which is already flinging away bits of dark but not
Jorie Graham
Tolstoi Learned to Ride a Bike at an Age When Most of Us Cash in Chips by Annette Barnes & Stuart Friebert
There we were, watching the parade, while he climbed up
Annette Barnes
Issue 9 Editor’s Note
To our Readers: Welcome to Issue #9 of Plume. Briefly — comme d’habitude —- In this issue,…
Plume
Editors Note
Far Country
When you were in that country
Lee Upton
Creek
Now it is easy to find where the creek dwindles, where it thickens at last, where its
Carrie Causey
Travel Light
By all means take my suitcase, which now again
Pia Tafdrup
Trouble
And so it took shape, & from what.
Lisa Russ Spaar
The Freud Museum
It’s 1938. Here’s moss on red brick
Ruth Padel
Crazy Hairdo, Crazier Head | Some Things to Consider Before We Proceed
Spector pinned down twins LaFlora and LaFauna like butterflies, trimmed their
Jennifer L. Knox
To Say
There are dead children all over and under this earth
Leslie Harrison
Booklet, Hand-Pressed Paper, Containing Locks of School-Children’s Hair, c. 1861
Wound on a bobbin like thread. Woven into a wreath
Nicole Cooley
How to Pray
Falling down on your knees is the easy part, like drinking
Barbara Hamby
Zacharia, Malachi
When the shepherd is stricken
Paul Hoover
The Third Visitor
The Third Visitor understands
Dick Allen
Dentist, Mexico, 1959
The room was big, not small.
Alberto Rios
κάθαρσης
Dr. Clark ordered daisies
Ron Smith
Bosnia, Kentucky
Court documents say her name is Azra Bašic. In 1992, twin knives
Ellen Bass
A Toy Airplane
The tumor
Kevin Prufer
N18P6
the shape doesn’t
Hank Lazer
The Beautiful Hand
Not a word.
Laura Kasischke
Poem
I’m going to pretend I’m a painter and just
Jeffrey Harrison
Unified Theory
The night is blue and staggered with stars.
Beckian Fritz Goldberg
Imagined Corners
At the corner where the transept cuts the nave,
Christina Pugh
Edna St. Vincent, M.F.A.
Chic and petite, blind to her destiny
Mary Jo Salter
The Mirror
We dream of two dragons
Norman Dubie
Moment of Truth
A matador imagines he has
Andrea Cohen
Nude with Pebbles
Flowers fall. And I noticed
Ralph Angel
Ready to Be the Lover She Remembers Forever
The gods are everywhere
Hsia Yü
Throw it All Away
My granddaughter who. The one alive in speech descends. A plate
Jeffrey Skinner
Ars Poetica
The dark night caught Jerome by surprise
Eduardo Chirinos
Pour Ainsi Dire
Drinking. What is boozing? If not a liquid manner of corresponding, thanks to wine,
Georges Perros
Zodiacal Light: A Dialogue
To see it, you look to the north
Patricia Clark
Plume
The old wheelbarrow aimed like a cannon
Dorianne Laux
Ödön von Horváth | Brief Incident in Short a, Long a, and Schwa | My Friend’s Creation | Contingency (Vs. Necessity)
Cat, gray tabby, calm, watches large, black ant. Man, rapt, stands staring at cat and
Lydia Davis
A Place
As a foreigner, I wasted a lot of energy
Bob Hicok
Preludium
In The Odyssey,
Christina Davis
Of Weeping
First there is the weeping one weeps when one reads a good poem,
Daniel Bosch
Barrage Balloons, Buck Alec, Bird Flu and You
First there is the weeping one weeps when one reads a good poem,
Paul Muldoon
In Memory
I remember the night my father died
Floyd Skloot
Vesuvius
No gazette ran the story,
R.T. Smith
The Ant’s Plunder
When I stuck out my hand to grab the iron door handle, a hidden ant attacked my right
Xi Chuan
My Heart in Evening
In the evening one hears the sharp shrieks of bats.
Georg Trakl
The Death of Erik Satie
The arches aspire to points
Ron Slate
Rare Moment
A clear choice
Lia Purpura
Three Fascinations
to wake to an alarm
Carol Moldaw
The Gone and the Going Away
The world I know keeps going farther
Maurice Manning
Tiger Story
Somewhere during my first or second year a tiger came into my life
Laird Hunt
An Oracle
Why does the line end sooner than the page?
Michael Collier
Home-Boys: Baby & Me (a Sapphic)
Ex-gang members. Driveby days over. Zero
Carol Muske-Dukes
from Landscapes on a Train
There once was a church. There once was a steeple. These things fall into
Cole Swensen
from “From Nothing”
One note, another, in the parlor’s angled light,
Daniel Tobin
News from Nowhere
The sea handles laundry
Fred D’Aguiar
Halloween
No gazette ran the story,
J.T. Barbarese
Wilhelmina Shakespeare
Blond hair, blue eyes, buck teeth: we taunted you
Rafael Campo
white paper #46
Obama Waffles Mix
Martha Collins
Duet
Their quest--what does the human body mean?--
David Huddle
Grave
Over the grave the bird will
Kuno Raeber
Inroad
The radiance that is always around us is incited
David Rivard
Cotton Candy
At first it gives like a sponge, elastically, and you think you’ll only make an
Maura Stanton
Notes on a 39-Year-Old Body
Most internal organs jiggle and glow and are rosy
Mary Szybist
Poems for the Absent One
Mother death,
Claire Malroux
To Fire
In my backyard, huddled over my magnifying
Lance Larsen
New Home
This house has no prehistory,
Lidija Dimkovska
Last Day in Coldwater
Our phone died due to lack
Jim Daniels
Rune
Not timber or bronze or iridium, not the old habits of species at a waterhole or the short
Maxine Chernoff
Showering Behind the Zodiac’s Curtain
When blue hangs around me, I am
Diane Wakoski
Thinly Veiled
In Alabama I learnt the difference between the state flag and the battle flag
Bruce Smith
Here at the Scene
How will I tell her particular tale
Robin Behn
Che Fai Di Bello
They are burning the fields in
Angie Estes
KRVAVÝ KOLENO
Why does the line end sooner than the page?
Sylva Fischerová
It Happened at Wind Sings, Trees Whisper Farm
The wind, broken and wild,
Judy Jordan
Fado Tropical
O mundo do rio
Mary Mackey
The Unmet Lover
Once I saw you in a freight elevator
D. Nurkse
On Contemplating a Sheep’s Skull
Skull aged so much in rain and heat,
John Kinsella
Powder
Yesterday I opened your pill box, and there
Mark Irwin
The Third Sequence: Time
Ribbon
Kimiko Hahn
Small Hut
I know you only in echo,
Tess Gallagher
Rembrandt, Self-Portrait, Age 51
Rembrandt, I aspire to your self-portraits
Peter Cooley
Another Argument with Jim About the Soul
You say I’d know it exists if
Stephen Dunn
Don’t Bum Out the Musicians
At St. Paul’s church, the musicians have heard it all.
Cornelius Eady
A Date With an Undertaker
He liked to bathe, dress,
Elaine Equi
Soup Teachers
we called them, the women who stood behind
Thomas Lux
A Fable: The Floss-Silk Tree and the Philodendron
In Brazil they call the floss-silk palo borracho
Peter Meinke
Late in October
Late in October, I watch
Linda Pastan
It’s Not Just Trains
The ticket office was closing
Lawrence Raab
Pitty-Pat
Oleander to the death of horses
Donald Revell
Don’t Pick the Cherries Yet
Don’t pick the cherries yet—
Maya Sarishvili
Widow
You cannot consider yourself a widow just because the full moon has gone
David Shumate
Leave It Lay Where Jesus Flung It
What a colossal wrong fall she took—that mastodon caught
Jane Springer
And
And
Keith Waldrop
The Hardworking Man
On the island where I grew up, the hardworking man is the ideal man. The
Nin Andrews
Focus
The point at which
Rae Armantrout
Fold
I pet my pet, I fear my fear, I torment my torment, I wear my wear, I tear my tear, I
Charles Bernstein
Missing
If I told you simply that the bed in the Baptist Hospital
Carl Dennis
Paradise
Our little vacation town in Spain is packed. The driving, slow. Things have changed
Denise Duhamel
The Lesson
It seems to me you don’t dare express yourself
Stuart Dybek
Late Portrait
Dried flowers everywhere. Greeting cards. China plates hung on walls, showing a
Amy Gerstler
Toussaint
The soul, you said, is this sour wind, or this empty glass, the tiny steps of insects, these white iron
Jean-Michel Maulpoix
Like Body
one light series discrete
G.C. Waldrep
Mother Doesn’t Bite
I bite instead and she needs salt,
Terese Svoboda
The Remaining Breast
I was showing my sister something about my breasts.
Alicia Ostriker
A Back Road Near Calais, 1961
A Back Road Near Calais, 1961
Mark Jarman
A Nocturnal Upon Saint Charles Yeager’s Day
Here comes that sonic boom
Kimberly Johnson
Poem for Shang Qin
I’ve been digging my way toward you since the day I was born. I watch the
Christopher Kennedy
Today’s Comedy
Why Dante in summer?
Maureen N. McLane
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