FORMFLASH: list poem by Jordan Perez
Why are most list poems ineffective? And what can make a list poem work?
FORMFLASH is a series of succinct posts highlighting, discussing, and critiquing poems—whether contemporary or classic, famous or unknown, and whether metrical, spoken word, exploratory, free-verse, or prose —that seize my formal attention. Each Formflash aims to deepen our awareness of poetry’s essential magic.
O God of Cuba
O god of tarantulas hissing from the trees
O god of cassava cut to the quick
O god of the chicken’s dragging, broken neck
O god of burying your money
O god of guayaba’s split red belly
O god of the soldier taking your wedding ring
O god of young cursing teeth
O god of the baseball stadium where,
in 1966, a soldier stood on third base
and sent hundreds of men to work
the sugarcane fields.
O god of barbed wire fences
O god of losing your name
O god of eating stray cats
O god of fake executions
O god of real executions
O god of being hung by your hands
O god of paper flowers in your bunk
by Jordan Perez (first published in POETRY, October 2023)
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