Gowri Koneswaran   YOUR POEM your poem started it your poem’s been talking shit but your poem has another thing coming so your poem better take a minute and step back better find a trashcan to hide inside because one of these things is not as good as the others and, guess what, it's him your poem is bad. how bad? shit. your poem is the history of colonialism, slavery, ethnic warfare, wars of terror, weapons of mass annihilation, and psychological tyranny your poem funnels drugs and guns into poor communities your poem factory farms animals like they're meat, egg, and milk machines and, on a personal level, your poem is a punk! your poem didn't call me back last night your poem keeps asking my friends out your poem rarely treats and, when he does, insists on carryout your poem rocks attitude like he's great in bed and fooled a few of us into learning the truth first-hand instead in other words, it's all your poem's fault your poem stole my brother's lunch money your poem thinks stereotypes are funny your poem failed gym class yet calls himself a jock your poem bullies the queer boys even though daddy’s got a drawer full of gay porn and toys your poem calls people of color “foreigners” while we’re doing more for this country than he ever will your poem watches too much t.v. your poem doesn't like poetry your poem doesn't believe in equality your poem doesn't accept that humans are causing climate change and plenty of other catastrophes your poem is ignorant and your poem doesn't understand that we have the right to remain silent but when we see injustice all around us our silence is an endorsement your poem is just watching out for himself your poem is playing it safe but sorry so your poem should stop opening his mouth if he's not going to use that voice your poem needs to speak up and say something   A LOVE STORY IN THREE HAIKUS 1. Love like this To be chased by you Unchaste with you, displaced in You I long for still 2. Grounded Railroad tracks stand still So trains can fulfill their fate. We search for our tracks. 3. Lyrics Some songs are too short. In music and in romance We forget the words. Ellyn Weiss Someone thinks you are wonderfully mysterious 2007,oilbar, 36" x 36" see more work by Ellyn Weiss WHAT IS HAPPENING we’re drinking blue booze at four on a sunday afternoon i’m craving one man but telling myself i want another the d.c. heat is imposing himself pinning his breath and sweat to my skin what is happening... weekenders are turning around and coming back to town a boy blows smoke on the sidewalk and smells of ashes men in buttoned-up shirts are idling nearby and i wonder what their lives are made of what is happening? the summer heat is a singer moaning for love lost and i'm grateful that at least he knows how to make music out of it what is happening sunlight is flooding down on us and the best we can think to do is squint WHEN YOU FUCK A POEM her ink is wrapped around your limbs like tattoos of who is written into you stains stuck to the page then transferred to your skin stanzas scattered across the floor lines divided creating sounds no linguist has ever heard your screams will be songs with no shape let her taste you solid as a consonant let her make you soft as a vowel with your mouth wide open swallow every syllable drip like coffee when the morning's long and the writing won't stop spill a little then soak until you are two pages pressed together pin her by the corners and recline between her lines when she moans it will sound like "you're my title now"     Gowri Koneswaran is a poet, singer, and lawyer whose parents immigrated to the US from Sri Lanka. Her advocacy has addressed animal welfare, the environment, and the rights of prisoners and the criminally accused. She was a Lannan Fellow of the Folger Shakespeare Library and a member of the 2010 DC Southern Fried Slam team, and has performed at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage and Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Her poetry has appeared in Bourgeon, and Lantern Review. Koneswaran serves as the program director at BloomBars community arts space.   Published in Volume 12, Number 2, Spring 2011.   To read more by this author: Gowri Koneswaran: Langston Hughes Tribute Issue