“I Am Not America” by David Prather (poetry, ’99)

A poem from David Prather (poetry, ’99) appears in The American Journal of Poetry:

 

I Am Not America

 

I am not the assassination of Harvey Milk or Martin Luther King, Jr. I am not
the battered body of Matthew Shepard or the bloated form of Emmett Till.

I look over my shoulder and you are there, framed by a shattered window
in an abandoned building. Or you are there driving a rusted hunk of junk

over potholes, the starving mouths of the earth beneath our feet. I hate
to admit that I am under the influence and driving home during the witching

 

 

. . . continue reading here.