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

    Monday, January 30, 2017

    DUNGEONS FROM DRAGONS

    by Dennis Etzel Jr.




    Asmund wakes me up for another game
    as the sun tries rising in another December
    morning I try to rise he says he likes to wake up
    in a little dark time not too early
    looks out the window over our back
    yard over our Kansas our country
    waking up I’ve never woken up in such a dark time
    these gradual small wake-ups to dungeon builders

    as our resistance is set to dismantle walls Asmund asks
    if this little dark time is okay for me to wake up in
    I say yes let’s go downstairs with your brothers to sit
    navigate the dungeon together keeping the dragons
    from getting further ahead as we search for a secret door
    for freedom I show my sons how to throw the dice



    Dennis Etzel Jr. lives with Carrie and the boys in Topeka, Kansas where he teaches English at Washburn University. He has an MFA from The University of Kansas, and an MA and Graduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies from Kansas State University. He has two chapbooks, The Sum of Two Mothers (ELJ Publications 2013) and My Graphic Novel (Kattywompus Press 2015), a poetic memoir My Secret Wars of 1984 (BlazeVOX 2015), and Fast-Food Sonnets (Coal City Review Press 2016). His work has appeared in Denver Quarterly, Indiana Review, BlazeVOX, Fact-Simile, 1913: a journal of poetic forms, 3:AM, Tarpaulin Sky, DIAGRAM, and others. He is a TALK Scholar for the Kansas Humanities Council and leads poetry workshops in various Kansas spaces.

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