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At Smedley Butler's Grave

December 20, 2022 - By W.D. Ehrhart

So here I am with Smedley Butler,
Major General, Maverick Marine,
Old Gimlet Eye, the Stormy Petrel,
two-time Medal of Honor winner;
me a sergeant with a Purple Heart
for doing nothing but getting hit.
(Don’t kid yourself, there’s nothing
heroic in that; just bad luck.)

Yet here I am at Butler’s grave. But why?
Well, we were both Marines, there’s that.
And he graduated in 1898 from the school
where I taught decades later for 18 years.
And he wrote a book called War Is a Racket
in which he concluded, “To Hell with War!”
How can you not love the guy for that?

 

W.D. EHRHART is an American poet, writer, scholar, Vietnam veteran, and active member of...

Something Solid and Unshakable

December 19, 2022 - By Clare Richards

"I slid my hand down and clasped the small pair of tweezers I’d placed in my pocket before leaving for work that morning. [...] A recent habit of mine. Big or small, holding a solid object put my mind at ease—as if its hardness was preparing me for something."
—from The Lake, by Kang Hwagil, translated by Clare Richards
 

Reading this section, each time I’m transported somewhere hostile. Walking down the wide street back to my old apartment in Seoul; in the heat my mask is like sandpaper and the bulging beads of sweat form patches on the fabric. The sun is not just hot, of course, it is bright, and I can see everything, all at once—every single flyer that has strayed from stacks randomly discarded instead of...

Video Work featured in Vol. 63, Issue 4

December 19, 2022 - By Panteha Abareshi

NOT BETTER YET

Methods of Care for the Precarious Body

PANTEHA ABARESHI is a Canadian-born American multidisciplinary artist and curator. They are based in Los Angeles, California and were raised in Tucson. Abareshi was born with sickle cell zero beta thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder that causes debilitating pain, and bodily deterioration that both increase...

10 Questions for Kieran Mundy

December 13, 2022 - By Edward Clifford

In the country, I could be better. I could learn to weave baskets and identify edible plants. I could learn to sew, to sing, to wear my hair in loose braids that tickle my bare shoulders.

Believe me, I know how it sounds. I know my reasons for wanting this life seem foolsih, too close to fantasy from the very beginning. Would it help if you imagined me as your wife? Your daughter? Your sister? By all means, go ahead. Imagine me what you will.
—from "It's More Afraid of You Than You Are of It," Volume 63, Issue 3 (Fall 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
My earliest work was actually in “songwriting." I went through a big Garage Band phase when I was 8 or 9, maybe? Lots of slant rhymes....

November MR Contributor Publications

December 8, 2022 - By Edward Clifford

Leila Chatti's collection Figment is out now with Bull City Press. Her poem "Still Life with Hemorrhage" was published in MR Vol. 58, Issue 3.

MR Poetry Editor Franny Choi's latest collection, The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On, is out now from Ecco/HarperCollins.

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