Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Planet
when mad oceans roar and rain’s a spear: when rage propels the rising tideand sewers spill: when tempest roils around your head—do you believe
your gods will hear?
will you board up, hammering defiance at a yellow sky?
or duct-tape, making diamonds out of window-glass? will you seal
your basement, let your washer/drier die, so you can live?
to fill a bugout bag with bullets, hop the last bus to a better place—or stay?
freezing, powerless and huddled in your preacher’s tub: playing
truth-or-dare as water rises: praying to Beelzebub—
rapture, rapture! water’s lapping at your chin: Noah’s nowhere
and the only bird’s an albatross with broken wings—
flood insurance? I’m an ocean! can you swim?
Jude Marr reads “Sinners…”
Jude Marr (they, them) is a Pushcart-nominated nonbinary poet. Jude’s full-length collection, We Know Each Other By Our Wounds, came out from Animal Heart Press in 2020 and they also have a chapbook, Breakfast for the Birds, published by Finishing Line Press in 2017. Their work has appeared in many journals in the US, the UK, and beyond. A native Scot, Jude recently returned to live in the UK after 10 years of teaching, writing, and learning in the US. The transatlantic connection remains strong, however: Jude will be a Poet in Pajamas for Sundress Press in June 2022. Twitter: @JudeMarr
Art: Carnivalesque, a visual poem by Robert Frede Kenter. Twitter: @frede_kenter, IG: @r.f.k.vispocityshuffle, @icefloe22
IceFloe Press 