Poetry
1 min
McClellan in Vietnam
Robert Beveridge
vellum crumbles
into the abyss
fingerprints burned
into the margins
of your velvet hair
liar
you whispered outsider
with a cocked hip
in your sashay to the mic
braggart
you showed off
perfect shoulders
white lace bones
under Xa Cam My fatigue green
name-dropper
you whipped out
the notebook
that secured your entrée
to the so-exclusive club
"the living"
no Confederate grey
for you except maybe
your eyes rimmed with napalm
or your language
scratched into history's cover
with a carcinogen pen
your ink the blood
of Jubal Early
and his dead band
of ragged burning soldiers
parchment the cast-off
uniforms of the casualties
from the 7th Cavalry
in the Wilderness Campaign
Southern eyes and bloody
lips agleam under the spotlight
some videographer set up
to tape the liquid poison
spat into the shoeless
starving audience
you spilled a little
on my arm
and it stuck
like your eyes
your napalm lips
melted in
latched hard
and deep in my bowels
and your attention
focused solely
on someone else
Boundaries and Bridges is a collection by incarcerated and unconfined writers from across the U.S. that explores connection and disconnection related to the justice system. This collection is supported by The Learning Inside Out Network (LION), an Alaska-based grassroots group that increases access to quality participation in artistic exchanges for people inside and out of the carceral system.
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