Longlisted for the 3rd Annual Geist Erasure Poetry Contest.

1.

There's war in America. When

those goddamned cunts kill you,

you have to kill 'em back.

2.

Thing is, you can get used

to almost anything. You line up,

quiet, just tired and quiet,

and you go along, or they rendition you.

Au revoir! Adios! Ciao!

3.

Men die as women lie there

in the dust. Dead people

plaster my screen. Thousands.

rerun!

4.

Others said the money

would have been better spent.

Commies!

5.

I don't much care, to tell truth.

It won't end.

6.

I sing in the shower and wonder

who hears the sour notes. No peeking, NSA,

at my secret blossom, delicate in the flow.

Erasure poetry begins with removing letters and words from an existing text in order to create a new stand-alone piece that provides new meaning to the original passage. For the 3nd Annual Geist Erasure Poetry Contest, we posted an excerpt from a prose poem, Cottonopolis, by Rachel Lebowitz.