
Spell for Protection
I walk alone on dark streets
I walk alone on dark streets all the time
am I not supposed to do that
anymore yet again still
.
.
.
feels like winter tonight
from my corner window I can see the armory turrets
it’s a men’s shelter
my sister says
for murderers and rapists without families
who got out
but they’re still in
she runs a clinic on the other side of town
.
.
.
what are you afraid of and
what does that say about you
say about yourself:
I’m not afraid
I’m not afraid
I’m not afraid
.
.
.
all the men surprised to learn
how it is
what street do they live on
not ours
the night cracks in half
you float on your piece
I on mine
to take whichever way home
.
.
.
for protection I was given
many varieties of stone
so far I have not gotten
much more hurt
This selection comes from the book, READY FOR THE WORLD, available from Black Lawrence Press. Purchase your copy here! Our curator for this selection is Kelly Lorraine Andrews.
Becca Klaver is a writer, teacher, editor, scholar, and literary collaboration conjurer. She is the author of the poetry collections LA Liminal (Kore Press, 2010), Empire Wasted (Bloof Books, 2016), and Ready for the World (Black Lawrence Press, 2020), as well as several chapbooks. A founding editor of Switchback Books, she is currently co-editing, with Arielle Greenberg, the digital poetry anthology Electric Gurlesque. Born and raised in Milwaukee, WI, she is the Robert P. Dana Director of the Center for the Literary Arts at Cornell College and lives in Iowa City.
Kelly Lorraine Andrews is an assistant managing editor for the American Economic Association and an MFA graduate from the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author of the chapbooks Sonnets in Which the Speaker Is on Display (Stranded Oak Press, forthcoming 2019), The Fear Archives (Two of Cups Press, 2017), My Body Is a Poem I Can’t Stop Writing (Porkbelly Press, 2017), I Want To Eat So Many Kinds of Cake With You and Mule Skinner (both out from Dancing Girl Press). Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in [PANK], Prick of the Spindle, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere. You can read more about her past and future publications and look at a slideshow of her cats at her website.
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