• Breaking News

    The New Verse News presents politically progressive poetry on current events and topical issues.

    Saturday, December 3, 2016

    BILLY COLLINS

    by Erren Geraud Kelly


    People use tents, makeshift plastic coverings and blankets as shelter in a block-long encampment that runs down San Pedro Street. Photo: Theonepointeight for The Intercept


    Tried to get a ticket to
    The reading, but it was sold out
    So, i settled for watching his
    Documentary
    While i snacked on nachos
    And beer.
    I read another rejection letter
    Earlier, i kept  thinking
    Maybe if i wrote "safer"  poems
    The New Yorker would love me
    But the only safe place is in
    My mind.
    I tried to eat  Osso Busco once
    But i kept thinking about the
    Tent cities, strung along
    Sixth street.
    I want to be P.C., but everytime
    I write polite poems,
    I see dead black bodies
    Floating between the lines


    Erren Geraud Kelly is a Pushcart-nominated poet from Los Angeles whose work has appeared in Hiram Poetry Review, Mudfish, PoetryMagazine.com, Ceremony, Cactus Heart, Similar Peaks, Gloom Cupboard, Poetry Salzburg and other publications, most recently Black Heart Literary Journal. He is the author of the book Disturbing The Peace (Night Ballet Press) and the chapbook The Rah Rah Girl forthcoming from Barometric Press.

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