Issue 3.3
Fall 2023
Garrett Phelan
Reflection
"Don’t Read the News" is one of a series of poems based on the to-do list. I create to-do lists every day and they tend to be boring and repetitive. What if I took them to another, surreal, level? The to-do list could become a poem that offers deeper revelations as to what's to be done on any given day.
Don't Read the News
Wonder if I have a brother.
Wonder what a brother is supposed to be.
What happened to all my used cars?
What else have I used that could still be alive?
Who has used me? How many miles did I give?
Don’t read the news. It’s real.
I’m fake.
Everyone seems to be shooting someone.
I guess a gun is the thing to be.
Sometimes there’s days like today
where there’s nothing you can believe.
Garrett Phelan is the author of the chapbook Outlaw Odes (Antrim House) and the micro-chapbooks Unfixed Marks and Standing where I am (Origami Poem Project). His poems have appeared in numerous publications including Harpy Hybrid, Slipstream, Potomac Review, Connecticut River Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, and Third Wednesday. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee. Recently, before the pandemic, he taught poetry in a maximum-security prison
in Connecticut.
Garrett's Book Recommendations
If Some God Shakes Your House (Four Ways Books) by Jennifer Franklin
Today in the Taxi (Tupelo Press) by Sean Springer
Common Grace (Beacon Press) by Aaron Caycedo-Kimura