“Please consider the case of China bending us over a barrel as it develops rare earth minerals while we ban mining. Please consider Venezuela and Russia and Saudi Arabia and Brazil (as we subsidize their off-shore drilling) and all other energy-producing countries as the Left locks up ANWR, NPR-A, and other American lands that are teeming with our own needed energy supplies.”
 — Sarah Palin, stressing the importance of “drill, baby, drill,” notes that we are being assfucked by China.

by Mark Bibbins, Editor

Flight Distance

Sugar was grit all through my feral year.
The sleepless alarm of instinct strung
every nerve on a trigger of quills.

In this wildness, you took me clothed,
only a rattle of buckle for warning.
Not ardor, but hunger compelled

that first time. And now, after
losing count, we still uncover ourselves
last. Clothing pushed up or pulled

down, a neckline stretched across hips,
a skirt raised over head, until breathless
and bare, we smolder against skin.

Maybe this rush evades a snare, or is seized
with skittish need, but whatever spins
this frenzy does not conceal our fragile bones.

Dear rogue, keep me indoors awhile more.
When you ask me to say your name, I will.

Tornado

Spun from the squall line, I am the wrecking ball
of wind you craved, unleashed on this supine plain

where the planet’s curve is all that hems horizon,
and you, my only azimuth. Wait for me underground,

a supplicant in the shoveled safety of a root cellar.
You should not see how quick a house is dismantled,

how it will bloom, a peony unfurling wallpaper and tile,
scattering fiberglass and plaster in a bramble of wires:

a history only revealed in ruin. You cannot rebuild
here. Start over and kneel before a new god.

Wildfire

A tree will grow around squirrel bones, enclose
whatever is lost or forgot: a scythe swung in the trunk,

a hidden tin of panned gold. Up to you, we remain
a knotted stand, every pinecone sealed in resin,

until we petrify in place, but a forest will suffocate
itself, trap the sun and water out. It is no accident

this phosphorus summoned by droughted chaparral,
a pyre to crown the canopy, to burn us both down.

Husband, take your share of buckshot and soot;
forgive me not the fire, but the hesitation to ignite.

Robin Beth Schaer’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Barrow Street, Denver Quarterly, Washington Square, Prairie Schooner, and Tin House. She has received fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Saltonstall Foundation. She teaches at Marymount Manhattan College and works as a deckhand aboard the Tall Ship Bounty.

You may contact the editor of The Poetry Section at poems@theawl.com.

Would you like to read more? Visit our vast archive of poetry!

According to people who are actually listening to NPR (okay, it’s Abe Sauer), bereaved listeners are phoning in to their ombudsperson, and sobbing about the contract termination of Juan Williams.

“Everybody is offended by something. I’m offended by a lot of those little girls running around with their thong panties showing, but I can’t make that go away.”
 — Hamilton County (Tennessee) Board of Education member Rhonda Thurman responds to complaints from students who feel that religious messages broadcast over the PA at school are a violation of the First Amendment. Thurman suggests that if the students are offended they can simply “put their fingers in their ears.” [Via]

The Virginia Quarterly, which has been on hold following the suicide of its managing editor, has had its review completed. The University of Virginia was looking into whether the magazine, and specifically, its editor, Ted Genoways, had played a role in the suicide. “After reviewing 23,000 emails and interviewing 25 current and former staff members, the report found that there were ‘no specific allegations of bullying or harassment.’” The report did claim there were incidents where Genoways was “not being courteous or respectful,” which, welcome to offices and magazines and the real world.

MOON CRATER SECRETLY FULL OF WATER.

As if rampaging monkey assaults weren’t bad enough, the poor citizenry of Japan is suffering through a wave of bear attacks..

At least 80 people have been wounded in bear attacks — and four killed — just between the months of April and September…. Even this late in the season, the brushes with bears have been continuing. Cops pursued a bear today in Fukuchiyama after it turned up in a residential area. And a train struck a bear on Tuesday in central Japan.

The culprit is climate change, says Fast Company, although who knows whether such a phenomenon even exists? (In related news, read the story of Kesagake, the animal responsible for the deadliest bear attack in Japanese history. Or don’t if you’re squeamish. )

“Spent day practising. Worthwhile, I hope!”
 — Janet Maslin interviews Keith Richards, memoirist. It’s a pretty standard piece, but these two lines from the 19-year-old Keith’s diary gave me the biggest smile I’ve had thus far today. The nervousness and restrained exuberance from a kid who would grow up to be a 20th century legend are really just heartwarming.

E-mailed trying to get a Kat Stacks interview for @Awl. The reply: “1,500 for interviews,thanks.” Better than any interview!less than a minute ago via web

Cord
cordjefferson

For those not in the know, Kat Stacks has spent most of the year “taking the rap-centric Internet by storm with her spicy tales of sexual conquests” with rappers.

“In the ’90s, when we were afraid of ‘selling out,’ we hated the gatekeepers, the mainstream corporate culture that assimilated and corrupted the underground. Now that the mainstream has fragmented, we see it as just another tool to get our message across, and our animosity has been forced to move on to another bugbear that is, like mass culture, ultimately a version of ourselves: the fake hipster.”