POLITICAL ARS POETICA

by Susan Cohen

Liam Conejo Ramos

Jupiter is smaller than we thought,

the way that human beings turn out 

to be smaller than we thought. But what use 

is lamentation? Sometimes it’s the smallest

who can nibble their way into the darkest

fastened cupboard of a heart. Sometimes

it’s a boy of five, his Spider-Man backpack, 

that blue bunny hat.

Susan Cohen is the author of three collections, mostly recently Democracy of Fire (Broadstone; 2022). Her poetry has appeared in 32 Poems, Alaska Quarterly Review, New Ohio Review, Prairie Schooner, Rattle, and Southern Review. She’s received the Red Wheelbarrow Prize, Terrain Annual Poetry Prize, and a Special Mention in the Pushcart Prize anthology, among other honors. A former journalist, she lives in Northern California.

Tweet