Civil Servants

Conversation with
A.M. Juster

The latest in our always-popular career tributes, Rattle #55 features a collection of seventeen civil servants—poets who have worked for various government agencies, including the EPA, the FDA, the CIA, the Census Bureau, and many more. Apparently working for the public produces a dry sense of humor, because many of the poems lean sardonic. These poets are also smart and down-to-earth, and just may restore your faith in bureaucracy. In the conversation section, Alan Fox talks to formalist and translator A.M. Juster, also known as Michael Astrue, who served as Commissioner of the Social Security Administration.

The winter issue also includes 21 poets in an eclectic open section, highlighted by haiku poets Penny Harter and Michael Dylan Welch, and former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser.

	Civil Servants
	Tim Amsden	Even Rottweilers Sing
	Lisa Badner	I Had a Window
		Taxi Court
	David Blaine	The Box
	Dane Cervine	The Guru
	Maryann Corbett	Prayer Concerning the New …
	Rodney Gomez	Rally
	A.M. Juster	Triptych: Dream, Convenience Store, Bar
	David Kelly	Life in a Day
	Greg Kosmicki	The Lucky Ones
	Arthur McMaster	Lada’s Lessons
	Bruce Niedt	The Man Peeling Sweet Potatoes …
	Marti Noel	Why We Climb Mountains
	Bradley Thomas	The Codified Book
	Pepper Trail	At the Forestry Institute, Hanoi
	Jane Wheeler	Playing with Matches
	John Yohe	Mid-July Tripod Lookout
	Poetry
	Ace Boggess	Facebook Keeps Telling Me
	Steven Chung	Animal Densities
	Wendy Mitman Clarke	Still Life with Birds, Extinct
	Penny Harter	Night Howls
	Lola Haskins	Three Prominent People
	Tom C. Hunley	I Lie on a Hammock …
	Ted Kooser	Roadside
		The Sick Bat
	Shireen Madon	Dear Body
	Gwerful Mechain	To Her Husband for Beating Her
	David Miller	Hang Float Burn Bury
	Leah Nielsen	Elegy with an Elementary School …
	Jennifer Perrine	I Tell Death, Eventually
	Christine Potter	Receptionist (1972)
	Sarah Satterlee	Traveler
	Bob Sawyer	I Stole a Day
	Emily Sernaker	I Have Confidence
	Truth Thomas	Boardwalk Empire
	William Trowbridge	Whiteout
	Michael Dylan Welch	Separation
	Melanie Wright	Twelve Weeks
	Sandra M. Yee	Your Shipwreck or Mine?
	Conversation
	A.M. Juster
	Cover Art
	Mark Hillringhouse