[          ]

Thumbnail image from the cover of Philip Metres's collection Shrapnel Maps

the very act of [      ] a thing with edges  

I had a hand in producing the [    ]
and no idea what I was doing

late one night my commander
led me to a room

and piles of [          ] everywhere
handed me a dried-out marker

unfurled a [          ] I’d never seen before
me to trace certain lines and shapes

just make them clearer, he said

a geo-body                   the shape of 

Arafat glared at the [             ] in silence
“You want me to accept cantons? 

You want to destroy me.”
with edges a body and the necessity 

of defending

 

Philip Metres has written ten books, including Shrapnel Maps (Copper Canyon Press), Sand Opera (Alice James Books), Pictures at an Exhibition (University of Arkon Press), and The Sound of Listening: Poetry as Refuge and Resistance (University of Michigan Press), among others. Awarded the Lannan Literary Fellowship, three Arab American Book Awards, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and the Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry, he is a professor of English and director of the Peace, Justice, and Human Rights program at John Carroll University.