First Tuesdays |||

The Cento for June 3, 2020

Cento

I.
In lieu of flowers, please send Justice,
a blood-splattered crescendo,
or else some commoner
will knock our fat asses off our golden seats.

Who here practices intelligence? Not we,
the Moes, Larrys, and Curlys now in the White House bunker.

II.
What’s one more journey?
Should I play dead? And when the police come
should I tell them it was all a joke?

I cried. I cried.
Watch grey feathers etched in red.

III.
Anxiety doesn’t believe in social distancing.
Open your eyes, your angel left for another Zoom call.
Why don’t you just fuck him already, and get it over with?
And don’t forget your masks,
with or without the ball and chain.

IV.
Memories I can’t undo, words I cannot write,
the tombstone hung around our necks.

V.
Here was the freak show, the ringside attraction,
but I do not remember love.

During every First Tuesdays open mic, we communally compose a cento using language taken from each open-mic reader’s offering. This cento is composed of lines from the work of: Barry Fruchter, Peter Marra, Marty Levine, David Siller, Dan Fleshler, Sandi Leibowitz, Lydia Chang, Patricia Carragon, Robert Roth, Cristina Ortolani, Henry Sussman, Jose Yrizarry, Robert Zwilling, Bonnie Ellman, John McMullen, Mallie Boman.

Up next First Tuesdays Presents Ralph Nazareth & Duane Esposito Watch the Video of the Reading by Ralph Nazareth & Duane Esposito
Latest posts First Tuesdays Presents Adina Dabija First Tuesdays Presents Jared Beloff First Tuesdays Presents Martine Bellen First Tuesdays Presents Sokunthary Svay The Cento for April 2, 2024 First Tuesdays Presents Sam Peterson The Cento for September 12, 2023 This Video Was Made From the May 2, 2017 Cento The Cento for May 2, 2023 First Tuesdays Presents Andrea Carter Brown The Cento for April 4, 2023 First Tuesdays Presents Nandana Dev Sen First Tuesdays Presents Elizabeth Wood The Cento for March 7, 2023 The Cento for February 7, 2023 The Cento for January 3, 2023 First Tuesdays Presents Shams Momin First Tuesdays Presents Steven Paul Alvarez First Tuesdays Presents Jason Schneiderman The Cento for October 4, 2022 First Tuesdays Presents Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr. The Cento for September 6, 2022 First Tuesdays Presents Jacqueline Jones LaMon - September 6, 2022 Two First Tuesdays Regulars Read An Incarcerated Writer’s Work as Part of PEN’s & The Poetry Project’s BREAK OUT The Cento for December 7, 2021 First Tuesdays Presents David Mills First Tuesdays Presents Alex Segura The Cento for September 9, 2021 The Cento for March 2, 2021 First Tuesdays Presents Lola Koundakjian First Tuesdays Presents Eugene Lim