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Private Manning by Kazim Ali

‘On the radio they are playing a record that is skipping. A deep-voiced woman joyfully sings, “My life has just begun– gun– gun–”’

By Kazim Ali

The following poem by Kazim Ali is from Apogee Journal‘s fifth issue, released in May this year. Apogee’s annual benefit to raise funds for their sixth and seventh issues will be held this Friday, September 25th, 7pm, at The 8th Floor in Chelsea, NYC, with the theme of Seams—borderlines of culture, identity, and the body. Join them for drinks, refreshments, live music, a silent auction, and readings from David Mura, Jamyang Norbu, and poets Myung Mi Kim and Wo Chan to support the voices of Asian American writers and all writers we need to hear more from.

Apogee is a literary journal that combines literary aesthetic with political activism to engage with issues of identity politics and provide a platform for unheard voices, including emerging writers of color. Featuring fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art, their biannual publication aims to interrogate the status quo by elevating underrepresented literary voices to affect real change across the literary and greater world.

 

 

Private Manning

 

Chelsea Manning’s leaked footage included a helicopter gunship spraying an unarmed crowd with bullets after lying to their dispatchers that they had seen a gang with AK-47’s.

Ovid sang, “Tell me Muse again how bodies change into other bodies.”

A truck pulls up in front of the building to deliver vending machines filled with sodas and canned juices. Painted on this side: FRESH FOR YOU.

Meanwhile in the line at the post office I drink kombucha to repopulate my guts with flora after a bad course of antibiotics killed my insides.

In front of me a man hefts a box up to the counter with a box that says LIVE BIRDS.

On the radio they are playing a record that is skipping. A deep-voiced woman joyfully sings, “My life has just begun– gun– gun–”

Gun. Gun. Gun Gun.