Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • The American Poetry Review

    ROME: PRINCE ROGERS NELSON DEAD

    Mar 01, 2020 2 minutes
    BRUCE SMITH

    1

    I had stage fright before the baroqueof Rome, afraid some part of mewould get loose in the volutes and the cork-screwedcolumns like the minds of the melancholyarchitects that overshot the human. I was dizzy.I was thirsty. I didn’t know the bodyof words. I wanted something burnt or vocal orbent around the edges of things like lightwhen I saw the nuns and polizia pointabove to what? Lesser glory or newsof dread come down in the form of a manwith a feeling in a truck? , they said,his voice descending through the gridof a speaker in the ceiling of the quickbar—the song goes on to insertseven swords in the virgin mother’s heart.

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from The American Poetry Review

    The American Poetry Review3 min read
    from SCENES FROM LATIN POETRY
    Qui tacet consentire videtur. Silence gives consent.Veritas odium parit. Truth creates hatred. You know how you can know some thingsbut forget you know until it’s time to remember.Mom met her third husband Billy whenshe was a teacher helping convicts
    The American Poetry Review2 min read
    Six Poems
    a golden shovel after Richard Wright To realize a girl blossoming is to figure purpleas disquiet. A flower forgotten (even an artichoke)if only to safekeep. In time, the daughter becomes agranddaughter budding in the darkof the mind’s cupboard. a gol
    The American Poetry Review2 min read
    Four Poems
    In the middleof spring, in the centerof the thicketa family of finches are making a slogof dinner, wormsthat, pulled outof the ground become somethinglike an elegiacwitness to hunger,the birds’ hunger, the thicket’s starvation,the yellowed grass’sthi

    Related Books & Audiobooks