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.
Of all the mixed up boys
I’ve been, all the names
I’ve taken in this world
that has to happen, I don’t
know the name of this new
thing. This thing I’ve let settle
down throughout me,
which spreads itself enormously
like unfurling skeins
of creosote and becomes
me. Far off, the artillery
flashes, and I miss the boys
I’ve been, kissing at the girls
with long legs, and stupidly
unafraid of the darkening tides
surrounding and then within.
CJ Evans is author of The Category of Outcast and Co-editor of Satellite Convulsions: Poems from Tin House. His poems have appeared in Denver Quarterly, LIT, Open City, Pleiades, and elsewhere.
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.
The systems that harm animals go hand in hand with systems that harm humans. Combating them requires inter-species solidarity.
Its illegitimacy goes far beyond the war on drugs.
Fiction
“Never do unto me what your uncle has done to us.” A family member’s disappearance leads to personal revelations.
A political and literary forum, independent and nonprofit since 1975. Registered 501(c)(3) organization. Learn more about our mission
