i must listen to the birds

DeeSoul Carson is a poet and educator from San Diego, currently residing in Brooklyn. His work is featured in Muzzle Magazine, AGNI, The Offing, and elsewhere. His chapbook, Running from Streetlights (2020), is a meditation on Blackness in America during the Summer of Racial Reckoning. A Stanford University alum, Carson has received fellowships from the New York University MFA program, the Watering Hole, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His debut full-length poetry collection, The Laughing Barrel, is forthcoming from Alice James Books in spring 2027. Find more of his work at deesoulpoetry.com.