Not Trump Seriesrbdlauren bender, nottrump, poetry

Lauren Bender: #NotTrump Series

Not Trump Seriesrbdlauren bender, nottrump, poetry
Lauren Bender: #NotTrump Series

Harm

There can be nothing wrong with this picture of a butterfly / right? This gorgeous / swallowtail relaxed and communicative like a psychological test / like a plane at rest in a rhombus of summer light / casting its safest shadow on the wood / feet too small for fear of splinters

There is something about / this symmetry / this folded and unfolded face / its rhythm of skeletal sketches / flattened to paper / so sheer / oh those fireworks of blue froth / hint of citrus bled almost to full fenced pupils / walk across me / butterfly / I mean my hand / how much it loves you

only what proof is there / a butterfly actually happened

and if it did / did it happen on this porch / did it happen this summer / this century / could someone send me a source / the source of that source / especially the name and political values of the corporation sponsoring this butterfly lie / will it all end / again / at one percent

should we even glorify flight / who decides / what gorgeous is / I fell for it / I am falling

what have I done

Lauren Bender lives in Burlington, VT and is editor in chief of Mud Season Review. Her work has appeared in IDK Magazine, Tulane Review, The Collapsar, The Lindenwood Review, Gyroscope Review, and others. You can find her on twitter @benderpoet.
 

Not Trump Seriesrbdchelsea whitton, nottrump, poetry

Chelsea Whitton: #NotTrump Series

Chelsea Whitton is a southern poet and essayist living in Ridgewood, Queens. Her poems have appeared in various web and print publications, including Sixth Finch, Forklift, Ohio, Bateau, WomenArts Quarterly, Cimarron Review, Ilk and Valley Voices. She hold an MFA from the New School. Read more of her work at www.chelseawhitton.com.

Not Trump Seriesrbdchelsea whitton, nottrump, poetry
Chelsea Whitton: #NotTrump Series
Not Trump Seriesrbdmatthew lippman, nottrump, poetry

Matthew Lippman: #NotTrump Series

Matthew Lippman is the author of four poetry collections—The New Year of Yellow (winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Prize, Sarabande Books), Monkey Bars, Salami Jew, and American Chew (winner of the Burnside Review of Books Poetry Prize). He is the recipient of many awards including a New York State Fine Arts Grant, and Jerome J. Shestak Poetry Prize from American Poetry Review.

Not Trump Seriesrbdmatthew lippman, nottrump, poetry
Matthew Lippman: #NotTrump Series
Not Trump SeriesrbdJen DeGregorio, nottrump, poetry

Jen DeGregorio: #NotTrump Series

Jen DeGregorio's poetry has appeared in Apogee online, The Baltimore Review, The Collagist, The Cossack Review, PANK, Spoon River Poetry Review, Women's Studies Quarterly, and elsewhere. Her writing has won scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and Hunter College in New York, where she received her MFA in creative writing. She teaches writing to undergraduates in New York and New Jersey and, come September, will be a PhD candidate in English/Creative Writing at Binghamton University (State University of New York).

Not Trump SeriesrbdJen DeGregorio, nottrump, poetry
Jen DeGregorio: #NotTrump Series
Not Trump SeriesrbdAmy Strauss Friedman, nottrump, poetry

Amy Strauss Friedman: #NotTrump Series

Amy Strauss Friedman is the author of the chapbook Gathered Bones are Known to Wander (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2016). Her poems have appeared in The Rumpus, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Escape Into Life, FLAPPERHOUSE, Red Paint Hill, decomP magazinE, and elsewhere. Amy earned her MA in Comparative Literature from Northwestern University. She was born and raised in Chicago where she taught English at Harper College and at Northwestern’s Center for Talent Development. She recently moved to Denver, Colorado where she teaches poetry to elementary school students. Her work can be found at amystraussfriedman.com.

Not Trump SeriesrbdAmy Strauss Friedman, nottrump, poetry
Amy Strauss Friedman: #NotTrump Series