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Winter 1994 • Vol. XVI No. 1 • Poetry |

Cowbell

You’re how we found The Maverick Room,
The Cave Yard, The Black Hole, and block parties
In hard-to-find inner city neighborhoods
With names like Congress Heights & Valley Green.

You’re The Real McCoy,
What we used to teach timid beginners to hit back.
When the power went out you gathered kin,
A family discussion of percussion:

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Thomas Sayers Ellis is the author of The Maverick Room and Skin, Inc.: Identity Repair Poems (Graywolf Press). His work has recently appeared in Poetry, Pluck!, Paris Review, and The Best American Poetry 2015. He is a photographer and a founding member of Heroes Are Gang Leaders, and is currently visiting writer at the City College of New York.

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Tapes

By Thomas Sayers Ellis

We got them the hard way, Taking turns holding recorders Filled with the weight of D batteries On our shoulders. We pressed PLAY & RECORD, Ready to release PAUSE Already […]

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