by Mackie Garrett
Dictation from Noise #16 Sometimes, some places spanning when & where, between shouts & sirens, glass shatter & new blood’s bright quiet. I’ll stoop to gather all the tiny, sharp bits, leave this corner a little cleaner than. Dictation from Noise #17 A heavy padlock speaks mistrust in the hands that place& pass over, let precious things slip or stick to an eager grasp. Out of sight, your lock invites prying fingers to the box where your best thing’s hid. A friend from a tougher town might advise: leave your door unlocked, stow your shit out of mind& let night’s hands search& depart with the smell of nothing-to-take driving them home.
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Mackie Garrett is a poet, artist, and caregiver based in Iowa City. His poems have appeared in IODINE POETRY JOURNAL, THE FOURTH RIVER, PLAINSONGS, and other journals. Poems from his Dictation from Noise series recently appeared in SPOON RIVER POETRY REVIEW and SLANT. Mackie designs and letterpress prints zines, chapbooks, greeting cards, and posters as 508 Press. He has taught literature, creative writing, and English as a Second Language to students of all ages at schools, community colleges, and universities in the midwest (Illinois, Iowa, Michigan) and overseas (rural Jamaica; Shanghai, China). He teaches letterpress printing and zine making workshops at the Iowa City Press Cooperative and dreams of starting a literary magazine soon.