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Green Pants
I washed my pants today.I washed my green pants today.I washed them clean by hand.They’re a type of green that’s dark and thickA royal green, deep like bright leaves… More
After a Bomb Threat
After a Bomb ThreatI am waved to a nichewithin a crowd of bodies,half of them stripping down,The remainder uniformed in blue.Here, I will bare myselfin the pallor of shame,have… More
Poetrical Muralism
Growing up in the aftermath of the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 70s, my generation and I were the beneficiaries of an abundance of free Chicano health clinics,… More
A Three-Strikes Sojourn
“Dey, wake up. You have court today.”Oh man. Here we go. Judgment and sentencing. I was about to feel the entire weight of the drug war era justice system… More
Arrests in America (Fuzzy Math)
Arrest by race, 2000 in AmericaTotal Arrests: 9,068,977Total Violent Crime Arrests: 414,420In the all arrest category:Whites were arrested in 6,324,006 cases, at 69.7%Blacks were arrested in 2,528,368 cases, at… More
World’s Oldest Prisoner
I’m glad all you folks could be here today. Makes me feel wanted. Of course, I’ve been wanted off and on for most of the past century.I was surprised… More
Gregory Rabassa
As one who works at spreading an awareness of what people are writing and saying in other languages through translation, I have long celebrated the labors of PEN American… More
Mavis Gallant, “August,” & What Cannot Be Said
This year, at the restaurant La Rotonde in Paris, I once again had lunch with Mavis Gallant and several other expatriate writers. I mentioned that when I returned to… More
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