At the state
fair where
cotton is
candy and
candy
cottons to a
black
puck
soars to the
top of the
tower and
strikes a
bell
below a
prize-
winner
strikes a
pose a
fist of
mallet
giving the
sky the
finger as
stand-by
clappers
cede the
hammered
base uproar.
Formerly from Detroit, Tyrone Williams, poet and scholar, is the author of c.c. (2002), On Spec (2008), The Hero Project of the Century (2009), Adventures of Pi (2011), Howell (2011), and As iZ (2018), and editor of African American Literature: Revised Edition (2008).
Read next: Issue no. one fiction section