Happy National Poetry Month! Our third poem of the week this April is “The Cellmate” by Alex Tretbar. The poem was published in issue 105 of the minnesota review.

The Cellmate

find me where the figuration
pulls up short of a white stop sign
we have spent all evening sanding down
and separating the constituent parts of
with a flame and isopropyl in a spoon
and you have to make sure to burn off
all the isopropyl before you
inject the one-word memorandum
in its most elemental state
free of chalk and anodyne
find me where the abstraction
abstracts itself into material gain
now that I’m taking tuesday seriously
enough to broach unspeakable subjects
alone in a stall in the bathroom
of a provincial bowling alley
where outside in the gravel lot
someone has decided they are willing
to go to prison right now
and I have felt that way before
I have wandered into five-star hotel
buffets merely to pray in their bathrooms
by purifying anodynes in isopropyl
in an attempt to locate a grove of leafless trees
that an old man told me about in prison
late one night in our cell he whispered at the corner
of enterprise and haverhill you’ll find
a white stop sign and a black dog and a
child in pale blue overalls that’s me

Publishing contemporary poetry and fiction as well as reviews, critical commentary, and interviews of leading intellectual figures the minnesota review curates smart, accessible collections of progressive new work. This eclectic survey provides lively and sophisticated signposts to navigating current critical discourse. The review explores the most exciting literary and critical developments for both specialists and a general audience.