Skit: Sun Ra Welcomes the Fallen by Ruth Ellen Kocher

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend February 1, 2016   Skit: Sun Ra Welcomes the Fallen   Ruth Ellen Kocher

Jupiter means anger. Sun Ra does not. Sun Ra dances the Cake Walk on Saturn’s pulpy eyes. If you believe that, I’ll tell you another one. The first is 13 and the next is 20. They were not good boys but they were boys. They were boys who died for this thing or that. The next was 16 and the last was 18. One had a cell phone. One had a gun. On earth, a goose opens its chest to a sound. The goose takes the bullet this way.  A sacrifice denied to the wind since there is no such thing as sacrifice anymore having succumbed to fever and the millennium. The bullet is all consequence. Sun Ra refuses red—long and high, low and deep. His arms are long enough to embrace them.            Copyright © 2016 Ruth Ellen Kocher. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “This poem makes myth out of tragedy as a way to cope with the sublime horror of our racial reality. We hear stories of black men and boys being gunned down everyday. Most of us wake up in the morning without expecting such a narrative to unfold in our own lives but, for me, and most other Black Americans, the body in the street is my husband. The body is my son. The body is my grandson who was sitting with me last night on the couch eating pizza. Sun Ra is a fantastic and mythic hope, a cosmic embrace, that refuses the familiar narrative of slain black bodies.” —Ruth Ellen Kocher   Ruth Ellen Kocher is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including Goodbye Lyric: The Gigans and Lovely Gun (Sheep Meadow Press, 2014) and the forthcoming Third Voice (Tupelo Press, 2016).  She teaches at the University of Colorado Denver.   Poetry by Kocher   Goodbye Lyric: The Gigans and Lovely Gun (Sheep Meadow Press, 2014) "Vacation" by Rita Dove "sorrows" by Lucille Clifton "A Ghost" by Cole Swensen Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038