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Poetic Justice
The poem that needs to be written
is not white.
The poem that needs to be written
does not speak English.
The poem that needs to be written
does not walk the halls of academia.
The poem that needs to be written
does not seek publication.
The poem that needs to be written
does not need the moon or a prompt.
The poem that needs to be written
bites its hungry tongue in the land of state media.
The poem that needs to be written
throbs in locked boxes hidden from clerics.
The poem that needs to be written
fingers a gun in the rubble of war.
The poem that needs to be written
swallows itself over and over.
The poem that needs to be written
will be killed by the time this is read.
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A Pushcart Prize-nominated writer, Eneida P. Alcalde is the author of The Wealth We Surrendered, forthcoming from Ethel. [“Poetic Justice” first appeared in Poet Lore (Summer/Fall 2024).]
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An ouroboros in a 1478 drawing, from 15th-century Greek scribe Theodoros Pelecanos's manuscript of an alchemical tract attributed to Synesius, a 5th-century Greek bishop.