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About Poet Laureate

Jeffery Renard Allen's Poetry

                                                         America: The Rapture

                                                                            --for *Abel Ferrara

The sky is white and thick
raw porcelain
skyline spraypainted with stars

 

Skin itches
glove's sweaty interior

 

Take off

 

Visualize
a city where
feet paid-in-full can never leave the earth

 

Unexplainable stains in the courtyard
Albinos in the square
Pigeons scissor their wings in parking lot
Dark dumpsters along the curb like anxious missiles trembling in
wait

 

Actors rehearse their lines
staged inside cramped public space
sanitation vehicle's motorized rear

 

Cigarette corked in mouth
the mayor drags the fabled harbor
for spent lives and untidy sums

 

Unaided surf lends its voice-over
spectators on watch with guarded interest
their sandaled toes victim to tear-dampened sand
jagged remains of the dearly departed poking through

 

The moon sinks/a perfect fadeaway shot

 

Dime in your dark pocket
Lord on your shoes
this is your black beginning

 

See there
your bright imprint

 

*Film director: The King of New York, The Bad Lieutenant, The Addiction