The Rote Stuff
Image: “Yellow Flowers” by Carla Paton. “The Rote Stuff” was written by Gary Glauber for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, September 2023, and selected as the Editor’s Choice.
Image: “Yellow Flowers” by Carla Paton. “The Rote Stuff” was written by Gary Glauber for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, September 2023, and selected as the Editor’s Choice.
till the soft cloth
hammers shatter
and no longer reach
the strings
till the metal pedals
wear down to nubs
unable to dampen
the music rings
“…the American political poem is a safe poem.”
—from “Political Poetry” by Kwame Dawes
A daughter asks her mother if humanitarian is the
same thing as volunteer. They are an American
family – a wine-salesman, a teacher, far from political.
For years, the only way to speak was to lie. Have you brushed today? Yes. Are you still in bed? No. Have you eaten since yesterday? Yes.
who
more inhumane
than
who
more brutal
than
who
who
pounded
bloodied
broken
My papa’s papa used to run after the wooden cart of prasadam
each dawn for food
Young feet bleeding over the rough road.