Zoe Canner
the worst in modern history
boldly untrue/beside the point/
fifty-eight and forty-nine are
both horrific/as are five and
one/i am not a counter/formica
smooth yellow tile/tacky granite/
i am not a counter/number of
casualties/any human harming
another human’s body on purpose
is preposterous/the hysterical
rendering of numbers tallied to
get our attention/speaks to an
assumption of complacency with
gun violence and the normalization
of talking points and ad psychology
prevalence/people who kill people
who kill people who kill people
Zoe Canner is an angry, anti-racist, 3rd Generation Holocaust Survivor. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Naugatuck River Review, The Laurel Review, and Arcturus of the Chicago Review of Books. She is an alumna of CalArts, Directors Lab West, and The Home School. She lives in Los Angeles where she indulges in hilly walks at dusk when the night-blooming jasmine is at its peak fragrance.
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