The Rock that Is Not a Rabbit

Corey Marks

The rock that is not a rabbit suns itselfin the field, its brown coat that isn't furfurred with light. The rock that isn't a rabbitwould be warm to a palm but wouldn'tquicken or strain from touch. It doesn't achewith hunger or pine with rabbit-lust,doesn't breathe the world in, translatingscent into some rabbit understanding.The world is beyond its understanding.And yet the rock that is not a rabbit willoutlast the hawk banking above, the foxsloughing free of its den, the wheel nickingoff the road to disturb the gravel berm,the mower coughing up the neighbor's yard.Even so, its ears fold back against its bodyas if to make itself small, a secret,though when a breeze disorders the grass,the rock's stillness appears like wild motion.

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Corey Marks is the author of Renunciation, a National Poetry Series selection, and The Radio Tree, winner of the Green Rose Prize. His recent poems appear in Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, AGNI, Birmingham Poetry Review, Gettysburg Review, New England Review, and The Sewanee Review. He teaches at University of North Texas where he is a Distinguished Teaching Professor and Director of Creative Writing.

Cover of 32 Poems Fall/Winter 2021

Fall/Winter 2021

Washington, Pennsylvania

Washington & Jefferson College

Editor-in-Chief / Executive Director
George David Clark

Managing Editor
Elisabeth Clark

Printed twice a year (in July and December) and distributed internationally with subscribers in over twenty countries, each issue includes 32 shorter poems. This minimalist focus has fostered an intimate and intensive reading experience since 2002, when Deborah Ager and John Poch founded the journal as an alternative to larger and less-selective literary magazines.

In its fifteen years, 32 Poems has showcased many of the most-recognized poets writing in English, including Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and MacArthur Genius Grant winners, Poets Laureate, and recipients of the other major honors in American letters.

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