Djelloul Marbrook began writing poems in Manhattan at age fourteen. He abandoned writing poetry after publishing poems in small journals in his thirties, but he continued reading and studying poetry. At age sixty-seven, shaken by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, he stuck a notebook in his pocket and began walking around Manhattan, a […]
I don’t know enough about anything to be anybody but a stranger. Isn’t that what a respectful visitor would say to a worried host? Of course, we kept our daughters out of sight, but we found no fault with him— say this of me, I’ll find no fault with you when I am asked about […]
life has not gone well since i ran over the dog and i would say not for him either but considering how little i know he may be enjoying himself i’ve run out in front of juggernauts myself yapping at the hand that parts the air so i know something about doggedness and even what […]
Stuff the mailboxes and night repositories against my attempts to insert flat evidence of my belonging here. I’m as sick of wanting to get in as I am of wanting to be heard. I was born with one of those faces that say Trust me, you don’t want to hear it. Bad enough listening to […]
What kind of a name is that? I invite you to notice that is the sound of deportation. My name is not contagious. Is quarantine necessary? Wouldn’t exile be better? I remember I’m from nowhere but a spurt in thoughtless dark: you’ve nowhere to send me. It’s French, I could say. Who knows the difference? […]
An unnamed race slips by ethnographer and xenophobe, roiling bowels and hackles, electrifying space. Genomes tell us nothing about our overlords; we know we’re an underclass to these corsairs and otherlings. They break our doors at night, take our wives and children, foul our consensuses with ideas and scat full-sail on glassy seas. Though we […]
A boy who looks embarrassed to be young skulks beneath the scaffolds avoiding light: I hope I will not have to be his like again: he glances up at me and remembers being old. No other bond is as strong as this.
I don’t know, djinn, how much you remember but I know you measure the Sahara’s sands, wear stars on your fingers and remember that once on Third Avenue an old man freed you and asked nothing. You studied him a long time before you left to make sure he understood the consequences. He did. And […]