ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Quintin Collins (he/him) is a writer, editor, and the Solstice MFA Program Assistant Director. His works have appeared or are forthcoming in Homology Lit, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Anti-Heroin Chic, Transition magazine, and elsewhere. He also received a Pushcart Prize nomination in 2019. Quintin likes to post poems and writing memes on his Twitter. He thinks the memes are funny sometimes, but that’s debatable.
Also by Quintin Collins:
Claim Ticket 60615: Obama’s Tan Suit
This is Where You Belong
The Data Says America Burns
Delayed MBTA Train Home as Jimi Hendrix’s Stratocaster
Electricity hums the third rail — a rumble
in the concrete throat. Train one stop away, delayed
for 11 minutes. Makes me wanna get up and scream
— tired feet and all. Sleep heavy-head nods
after crosstown traffic navigation to Park Street,
after long work day. The next train to shoes off,
clothes off, mind off is now approaching.
Train cars groan around the bend, then rasp
like Jimi's "Purple Haze" riffs in your headphones.
Ten red-striped cars thunder
the platform — steel-glass blur slingshot
all along the rails. A screech rips the station,
metal-on-metal grind as Jimi engraves his initials
in your ear canal, as the train slows to a halt.
"Delayed MBTA Train Home as Jimi Hendrix’s Stratocaster" is part of my current work in progress, which focuses on seeing how aspects and reflections of black culture exist in public space, especially in mundane happenings and sentiments. In this case, the happening and cultural connection focus on an internal small joy (listening to "Purple Haze" while waiting for an overdue train) and how it projects onto the world. All praises due to J. Jennifer Espinoza for writing "The Moon is Trans," which inspired this project.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
