The Brooklyn Rail

APRIL 2020

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APRIL 2020 Issue
Critics Page

Resolved


There are laws
internally generated knowledge,


syndromes and causes,
curses, prophecy, destination,


country self, city self.
Every day a new problem,


ironic hyperbole, limited omniscience,
launch, voyage, arrival,


alter, avatar
downward spiral.


There are (delayed) consequences,
double voicing, terrible


danger, asymmetric warfare,
not quite spring dawn


becomes the present
disequilibrium to which,


not great, fake, safe,
inevitable, or eternal,


but disenchanted,
able to win,


in advance.
We don’t give in




2.


to our hunger
for thought,


creature comforts,
and pretense of


freedom whose
symbolic victims


as oneself withdrawn
into daily life’s


fearful interdiction
Please not me!


nonviolence wish
exists because


I don’t understand violence


as lucky or protected
but in my mind


privatized as it is
this unsettled


awareness settles in
of subjection’s evil


incessant, incantatory
lies displayed


here as real
predicament




3.


solved not
by anthem
but promise,
proposition,
chance, stance,
corroborative
support system,
commitment, and
resolve

Contributor

Laura Moriarty

Laura Moriarty is the author of Personal Volcano from Nightboat Books (2019). She lives in Richmond, CA.

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The Brooklyn Rail

APRIL 2020

All Issues