Brought to You by the Letter S

Parker Hobson

There is a thin, curvy linebetween laughter and slaughter, I try yellingto you on the roller coaster but my timingis off, our shark bodies flunginto runaway cursive, vestigial Converses dragging serifsacross the clouds. Still, it feels nice to be heldin a system. Look at this shape I’m tracing!Look at the intestinal, steel-swept whale spine of how I’m stayingto the end. In a few minutes, sharing sno-conesbeneath our little quilt of redactions, you’ll bring up how neoconssold out the Amazon. I won’t tell youI wish you would ask me what I’d been trying to tell you.Is there an official corporate sponsor for recognizing a feelingas mostly ridiculous, while feeling it wholly?Mid-air together, in the state-inspected momentum,our city spreads out like a mnemonic that forgotwhat it stands for—the ranch-houses notchedlike foosball teams across the plains,the kids hoping to pass for skater kids all glowingfrom the midway like steeplesfrom a TVA lake. And the horizon window-silling us here, plural, painted shut.

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photo of Parker Hobson

Parker Hobson is a poet from Louisville, Ky., who has also had work appear in Best New Poets, Conduit, Subtropics, & elsewhere. He is also a songwriter and a radio producer.

cover of 32 poems summer 2021

Summer 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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