Benjamin Brindise, William S Tribell
resurgence1 come up rise, like a city always up, but never quite there yet Share in the
loganberry wit the silly puns off names and places we still see only as a punchline
Something Wicked This Way Comes1 when its cloud finally arrives to rain I will edit this poem, roll it taught slide it into a bullet casing watch the end flare up, the ink mix with gunpowder, the words fold under the falling hammer, it will ignite into a firework, just like a poem is meant to be it will end up spray painted on police blockades, riot masks the lineation will create a face we could never really hold long enough to be taken seriously, an idea that can not be stricken down or legislated away, the sentiment that we are larger the way we die
Beyond a Star I'd go Sailing2 She likes to paint when she gets a little sad Ships tossed in a tempestuous pressing sea Somehow her steady patience calls to me A slow sadness yeah, but strong and honest When she is happy I can take it - some of it She gives it to me willingly, and she knows The difference shows - strong and honest Somehow gifted, a subtle unspoken promise Behind eyes that are really looking at me Now I am learning to paint her sad ships Mine are lost though, on a languid open sea Dark, haunting waters - adrift, and listing But star lit, perhaps even slightly embolden Hope of shore, to sea no more - given to me
Benjamin Brindise is the author of Rotten Kid (Ghost City Press, 2017), a debut chapbook featured in the 25th Annual Poets House Showcase. He is also a Teaching Artist at the Just Buffalo Literary Center specializing in spoken word poetry and fiction. He was a member of the 2015 and 2016 Buffalo National Poetry Slam teams, helping Buffalo to place in the top 20 in the country for the first time. He has most recently been accepted for publication in Trailer Park Quarterly, Your One Phone Call, The Magnitizdat Literary, Peach Mag, Foundlings, and Ghost City Review. 1
William S. Tribell was born in Kentucky. A perpetual tourist, Tribell has lived all over the country and the world. A long time resident of New Orleans Louisiana, after Hurricane Katrina he spent five years in central Europe. In 2008 Tribell served as state campaign director of Louisiana for Senator Mike Gravel in the 2008 presidential election. He is a multimedia artist. His interests are varied; he is a photographer and journalist, receiving a Lighthouse Media Award in 2015. A member of the Southern Collective Experience, Tribell received a Pushcart Prize nomination in 2016 for poetry and a nomination for 2018 Kentucky Poet Laureate, his work appears in journals and magazines around the world, including Mensa's Calliope, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel 16 "Apocalachia: Apocalypse in Appalachia", and Spudgun #1. Many of his poems have been recorded spoken word and with instrumentation by Radio Hall of Fame inductee Gary Burbank, actor John Blyth Barrymore, Red State Update's Travis Harmon and many others. 2
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