Pamela Sumners
My Lord St. Louis
My Lord, St. Louis, just how
did you do this? I want to
know why someone posted
about a lost turkey in, well—
it could only be the Southside
because turkeys are just on tables
out in Ladue. I wouldn’t want to
be that turkey. Neither would you.
My Lord, St. Louis, here you just are,
a little planetary scar spawning the
elements, the conundrums of T.S. Eliot,
the little piteous, discontented contents
of Tennessee Williams, his huge tenements.
Oh my Lord, St. Louis, you sit on the fault
lines that may destroy us from New Madrid
to Ferguson, and still, in your World Fair’s
vault, hold our sordid and buried treasures.
I think, St. Louis, you’re one tough measure.
Pamela Sumners is a constitutional and civil rights lawyer. Her work has been published or recognized by over 20 journals and publishing houses in 2018. Her work has been selected for inclusion in Halcyone/Black Mountain Press volume, 64 Best Poets of 2018. She lives in St. Louis with her wife, son, and three rescue dogs.
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