Social Media Poems 2018 Simeon Berry Contents Confessional (Paisley Rekdal) ...................................................................................................................... 1 The Afterlife Is a Room Full of Windows You Are Trying to Avoid (Joanna C. Valente) ......................... 2 Barbie Chang’s Mother Calls (Victoria Chang) ........................................................................................... 5 I Am the Whole Defense (Mai Der Vang) .................................................................................................... 7 I Meant Eyes But Wrote Yes (Amy Dryansky) ............................................................................................. 8 Caught In A Trap: The Dead Redux (Tanya Olson) ..................................................................................... 9 Suburban Pastoral (Adam Sol) .................................................................................................................... 10 Night Falls like a Button (Chen Chen) ........................................................................................................ 11 I Remember, I Remember (Mary Ruefle) ................................................................................................... 12 Not a Warning, Not a Challenge, Not an Instruction Manual (Eugenia Leigh) .......................................... 20 Dear Reader (James Tate) ........................................................................................................................... 21 Coming and Going (Tara Skurtu) ............................................................................................................... 22 That Chile Emmett in That Casket (Patricia Smith) ................................................................................... 24 Circus Fire, 1944 (Gabrielle Calvocoressi) ................................................................................................ 25 Say When (Sophie Klahr) ........................................................................................................................... 26 Self-Portrait (Kiki Petrosino) ...................................................................................................................... 27 Early Winter, Before (II) (Rachel Mennies) ............................................................................................... 28 Milhous as King of the Ghosts (Rachel Loden) .......................................................................................... 29 Hair on Fire (Jim Daniels) .......................................................................................................................... 30 Stray Dogs (Sarah Howe) ........................................................................................................................... 31 Dost (Gregory Lawless) .............................................................................................................................. 32 Acetylcholine: Lot and Sparrow (Dave Snyder) ......................................................................................... 33 Tips for Survival (Maureen N. McLane) .................................................................................................... 35 XLI (Mack, The Breaker) (Rodney Jones) .................................................................................................. 36 Refrain (Reginald Shepherd) ...................................................................................................................... 38 Terrorism (Hayan Charara) ....................................................................................................................... 39 Vince Neil Accompanies Josh to Luncheon w/ Scholars, Poets, and Others—Gets Cell-Phone Number of Grad. Student Sitting at Far End of Table—Orders Cheeseburger, No Tomato—Borrows Josh’s Cell Phone—Calls Grad. Student Sitting at Far End of Table (Josh Bell) ......................................................... 42 Electrical Flora (Stephanie Burt) ................................................................................................................ 44 If You Can’t See My Mirrors I Can’t See You (Emilia Phillips) ............................................................... 46 Right as Rain (Aleda Shirley)...................................................................................................................... 48 A Crown for Whatever Has Fallen (Kristen Case) ..................................................................................... 50 The Dead (Nickole Brown) ......................................................................................................................... 54 The Leonids (Jennie Malboeuf) .................................................................................................................. 56 1 Fave = 1 Fact About Myself That Is of Interest Only To Myself: Everything Gold Can Stay (Sandra Newman) ..................................................................................................................................................... 57 Latitudes (Maureen Seaton) ........................................................................................................................ 68 from Heating and Cooling (Beth Ann Fennelly) ......................................................................................... 69 Legendary (Nicole Sealey) .......................................................................................................................... 70 April (Michael Earl Craig) ......................................................................................................................... 71 Use the Following Construction in a Sentence (Belle Waring) .................................................................. 72 Ode to Lists (David Kirby) ......................................................................................................................... 75 Seeing His New Girlfriend at the Coat Check (Sarah Green) .................................................................... 77 the ghost’s daughter speaks: white elephant (Rachel McKibbens) ............................................................. 78 Risk Management Memo: The Service Industry & You (Mary Biddinger) .............................................. 80 Instructions for Renting an Apartment (Adriana Cloud) ............................................................................ 81 Valentine’s Day (Kateri Lanthier) .............................................................................................................. 82 During the Middle Ages (Camille Guthrie) ................................................................................................ 83 [I floated I flew I fell to earth to learn the pleasures of the lowdown] (Diane Seuss) ................................ 85 Love Poem in the Style of Jordan’s Furniture (Kendra DeColo) ............................................................... 86 Ord (Arielle Greenberg) ............................................................................................................................. 88 Three Poems (Joanna Penn Cooper) .......................................................................................................... 89 Natasha Writes Back (Marta Balcewicz) .................................................................................................... 91 In Which the Chorus Sees an Incomplete Vision of the Future (Traci Brimhall) ...................................... 92 The Bad Teacher (Laura Kasischke) .......................................................................................................... 94 Eva Braun (Paul-Victor Winters) ................................................................................................................ 95 On the Day of Your Wedding (Kristin Bock) ............................................................................................. 96 “The female seer will burn upon this pyre” (Elizabeth Alexander) ............................................................ 97 from “All Else Fails” (Deborah Landau) ................................................................................................... 98 The Stall (Catherine Bowman) ................................................................................................................... 99 Eyebrows (Karyna McGlynn) ................................................................................................................... 100 Service (Alison Stine) ................................................................................................................................ 101 Collectable Blacks (Adrian Matejka) ........................................................................................................ 103 How We Count in the South (Erin Belieu) ............................................................................................... 104 The Untied States of America (Martha Silano) ........................................................................................ 106 Introduction to Poetry (Kim Addonizio) .................................................................................................... 108 When I Was Thirteen, I Saw Uncle Vanya (April Bernard) ..................................................................... 110 Tongues of Fire (Jill Alexander Essbaum) ..............................................................................................