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Chitra Ganesh, How to Assemble a Flying Car (detail), 2018, linocut on tan BFK Rives. Courtesy of the artist & Durham Press.

Abeyance

Always it’s putting two things together
that don’t necessarily belong there
—Gerald Stern, “Two Things”

a voice on the corner
shouting in the face of night
liquor bickering with conscience
sleep with desire

a picket fence with a gate
you might step over
kitchen windows cranked
open to the street

and the smell of lilacs
entering like a ghost
searching for a single
hesitation to haunt

Poetry
The Rain
by Humberto Ak'abal
Translated from the Spanish by Michael Bazzett
Portrait of Bruce Willard

Bruce Willard’s poems have appeared in Poet Lore, Harvard Review, AGNICortland Review, Ploughshares, Salamander and 5 A.M. as well as on NPR’s Writer’s Almanac. He has two collections of poems, Holding Ground (2013) and Violent Blues (2016); both published by Four Way Books. His third collection, Bond, is forthcoming. More information is available at www.brucewillard.com. (updated 10/2018)

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