The Brooklyn Rail

APRIL 2022

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APRIL 2022 Issue
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Shorter Russian Poem


famine, plague
floods, rains
droughts
poverty, robberies
kidnappings
civil war
invasions
tyrannies upon
tyrannies
. . . and then
the dark times
came









Pathetic Fallacy


Never mind there’s
no hole so deep
you don’t get banged
when you hit
bottom, or that
the zombies have
overtaken the Capitol—
I still hear nightingale songs
every time I see pigeons
nosediving in early
morning hale, whose
icy spitballs remind me
of paradise.









Rye Sense of Humor


you don’t have to be Jewish
to send a salami
to your boy in the navy

Contributor

Charles Bernstein

Charles Bernstein is a poet. Charles Bernstein’s most recent contribution to the Rail was an interview with Etel Adnan (February 2021). His most recent book is Topsy-Turvy from the University of Chicago Press.

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The Brooklyn Rail

APRIL 2022

All Issues