Alicia Ostriker

Alicia Ostriker “A Walker in the City” “Coda: Into the Street” Andy Clausen “Insurgency” A Walker in the City What you see is what you get, an inventory of garbage lying loose– the poor are always with us, but the rich lurk behind one-way glass in limousines and an entire class of attractive youth increasingly…

I All the photographs are lies, she looks Normal in them, like other people, Not mad, not spilling lava, Her eyes are compelling as doe’s eyes, And she did not know this, and the worst of it is She looks alive. Putting the photos away, I keep thinking How small and afraid she was in…

  Do you remember our earnestness our sincerity In first grade when we learned to sing America The Beautiful along with the Star-Spangled Banner And say the Pledge of Allegiance to America We put our hands over our first grade hearts We felt proud to be citizens of America I said One Nation Invisible until…