We are a public forum committed to collective reasoning and the imagination of a more just world. Join today to help us keep the discussion of ideas free and open to everyone, and enjoy member benefits like our quarterly books.
We are a public forum committed to collective reasoning and the imagination of a more just world. Join today to help us keep the discussion of ideas free and open to everyone, and enjoy member benefits like our quarterly books.
When the evil army comes it is accompanied
by a deceptively noble trumpet, as a woman
wears white, and believes in it. An angel
is not spiteful without cause, having been flung
from the hand of God whose engine, reportedly,
is love itself. How badly the crippled angel
wanted to be first in everything, God’s
man Friday! The fallen angel is not without scruple,
the angel envies the earth. The earth is just
beyond chaos, and so rests against chaos;
yet everything that comes from the earth’s Garden
can be tended, pulled, made orderly—
blanched and laid before a guest—
the earth has something called an offering.
The story of the Garden is allegorical.
An allegory is like a forked tongue,
an allegory is an infant bastard who is fitful.
The Garden becomes linked with a feeling
of sickness and trepidation: a dream
of taking an air balloon ride over a river,
because the bridge is burning
Alison Powell’s poetry has appeared in AGNI, Black Warrior Review, and Guernica. She teaches at Hunter College.
Contributions from readers enable us to provide a public space, free and open, for the discussion of ideas. Join this effort – become a supporting reader today.
Vital reading on politics, literature, and more in your inbox. Sign up for our Weekly Newsletter, Monthly Roundup, and event notifications.
In his new book, philosopher William MacAskill implies that humanity’s long-term survival matters more than preventing short-term suffering and death. His arguments are shaky.
In her new book, Danish poet Olga Ravn writes with open love, pity, and compassion for her strange yet familiar creations.
Draconian individual punishment distracts from systemic change and reinforces the cruelest and most racist system of incarceration on the planet.
A political and literary forum, independent and nonprofit since 1975. Registered 501(c)(3) organization. Learn more about our mission