Ann Chadwell Humphries
Very Fine People. On Both Sides.
He says, then waves it away like a fly.
A flow chart of infrastructure furls
from the glass of Secretary Chow’s
blue-suited smile. Other cabinet members
study their shoes. His words fracture
their masks. Even
the marble floor shows cracks.
I cannot look away. The fissure lures
me like a keyhole. I recoil at the odor
of ugliness, pledge to do something.
I’ll start with myself.
Ann Chadwell Humphries’s have appeared in Jasper Magazine and on The Comet, the bus system of the Central Midlands Regional Transit Authority in Richland and Lexington counties in the Columbia metropolitan area of South Carolina (an initiative of Columbia’s inaugural poet laureate, Ed Madden). Winner of a 2017 Into the Fire scholarship from The Sun magazine and recipient of a Jasper Magazine Emerging Voice award, she lives and writes in Columbia, SC.
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