Blog Archives

Red Flag is so much more than just postcards!

We also publish digitally, every other month, via the Poetry Express. This format gives us the freedom to publish work that won’t fit on a postcard but still needs to be shared with the world.

On this page, you will find all of our past Poetry Express poems with information about their authors. If you like these poems and want to get even more poetry delivered directly to your mailbox, head over to our subscribe page!

10/28/2019 Comments

Jules Gates: "National Coming Out Day"

National Coming Out Day

All I remember is her name was Cindy
And she called herself a bulldog
And we were 2 innocent kids
Doing what kids will do
Because that was before homosexuality existed
So her mother would leave us alone
In the pool for 3 hours
And then reappear with sandwiches and lemonade
After we had quite exhausted ourselves
Swimming, probing, diving in and out
As we did on girl scout camping trips
Outside the building at Bible school
At the roller-skating rink
In my backyard and bedroom
And no one was the wiser
Because we were 2 young girls
Getting it on
On the down low

Jules Gates, Associate Professor of English in the EML Department at Angelo State University (ASU), has worked since 2002 on the ASU Writers Conference, conducted an interview with Terrance Hayes (2009), chaired the Conference for 2 years (Mary Karr 2010/Art Spiegleman 2011). Her poetry is widely published in Texas and throughout the country.

Comments

10/1/2019 Comments

Joumana Altallal: "Self-Portrait"

Self-Portrait
Wadi As-Salaam

The last time a body is washed,
scent of olive oil soap and tap water,
two inseparable corpses:
always a woman burying herself
with camphor, lotus leaves, a steady hand
in a land that swallows, all of Najaf
is a graveyard
of holy, holy, holy.

Afandi, Yusufi, Lalankee

When Yusuf Afandi brought mandarin saplings
from the island of Malta did he know
they would be given so many names?
to peel the skin of the afandi
is to peel language, to place it in the mouth
and let it run.

Okra necklace

Even after Taita dies, Jiddou remembers
to bring home bags of okra, dried and strung
onto necklaces of thread.

Talisman: Prophet Yusuf’s Shirt

When you (peace be upon you)
tied this shirt
around your brother’s hand
did you know it was written
the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars
bowing, to be thrown
in the well
and still rise
like water, to remember
despite the dismemberment.

Joumana Altallal was born in Baghdad to Iraqi and Lebanese parents. After completing her B.A. at the University of Virginia, she began her M.F.A at the University of Michigan, where she is currently a second-year candidate. She works with Citywide Poets to lead an after-school poetry program for high school students in Dearborn, Michigan. Her work appears in Poets Reading the News, Mikrokosmos, and Alternating Current, among others.

Comments

YOUR CART

Jules Gates: "National Coming Out Day"

Joumana Altallal: "Self-Portrait"

Authors

Archives

Categories