M A R G I E  The American Journal of Poetry     www.margiereview.com

Published Annually in the Fall                                     MARGIE  P. O. BOX 250, CHESTERFIELD, MO 63006-0250

It's not his imperceptible sway, or the whine

of the rope's braid straining against his weight,

or his right pant leg shoved above his shin; it's not

the wide blade of light slicing the snapshot, behind

the body, or through him, depending on your

angle, it's not the way his still-tucked white

shirt becomes that light, becomes the source of that light,

not the way the dead fist inside his chest

becomes the source of that light; it’s not the way

everyone save him

looks at the camera, poses—

one young man, nearly handsome, pushing

the hanged body so he might fit more snug

into the frame—or the way an adult turns a child

toward the camera

as if to say, "stand still so they can see

what we've done;" it's not the neck's torque and bulge

or the skin's color—

            it's the angle of his head, its impossible,

owlish twist toward something only he can see, or away

from something only he can see, it's as though the same flash

that makes the dumb-looking boy grin, to the hanged

man it burns.

ROSS GAY is finishing his Ph.D. in Literature at Temple University in Philadelphia, teaching art at Lafayette College, and is an assistant basketball coach at Neshaminy High School.  An M.F.A. recipient from Sarah Lawrence College, his poems have most recently appeared in American Poetry Review, Harvard Review and North American Review.