In addition to history, the divine, and stories from sacred texts, the speaker also wrestles with empire. In the poem “My Empire,” the speaker says, “My empire made me happy / because it was an empire, cruel, / and the suffering wasn’t my own.”
However, Heather Swan does not write from a place of abandoned hope. She questions what must we do? but does not despair
Hit play below to hear Johnna St Cyr read her poem “My Windshield Saga (Version 8 Because Every Time I Write A Draft the Damage is Worse Than the Estimate)” and scroll down for the full text. “My Windshield Saga (Version 8 Because Every Time I Write
Why I Chose It: Michigan Quarterly Review reader Abigail McFee introduces Kristene Kaye Brown’s “Why I Stopped Watering the Plants” from our Spring 2021 issue. You can purchase it here. “A body that hungers is a body that hopes,” begins Kristene Kaye Brown’s “Why I Stopped Watering the
