ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Mack Rogers is a queer Black writer whose work appears in Foglifter, The Offing, Shenandoah, and elsewhere. His debut chapbook, Hindsight, was published with Diode Editions in spring 2025. Mack has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best New Poets, and the Pushcart Prize. He lives with his partner and their three cats in Raleigh, NC.
Previously in Glass: A Journal of Poetry:
On an early morning flight, I saw a shadow that reached into space
Let there be
Let there be something besides light.
Let there be Black.
Let there be hair, nappy and perfect.
Let there be naps.
Let there be a guarantee of safety as
we lay down to rest at night.
Let there be a home in which that
could realistically occur.
Let there be no shortage of homes
for my people to sleep in
and an endless number of realities
in which all of the doors
could be left unlocked. Let there be
running water and let there be
no food scarcity in such a place.
Let there be a fountain of youth
for each of us — to spit in. So
that when we exist forever we
can say it was thanks to each others’
contributions. Let there be someplace
where all these reasonable
requests are met in perpetuity.
Let there be an imagination,
wild and dreaming of a better
circumstance, a better couch
on which to watch the moonlight,
a better shelter from harm. Let
there be a better dream, one where
hanging means one less thing.
Let there be a hang, with all y’all,
alive and aware of exactly from
where our ancestors originated.
Let there be ancestors, happy
to see me when I see them.
Let there be a light at the end
of the tunnel and let there be
Black behind it. Let their light
be magnificent and everlasting
like the starlight that’s still
reaching for us from lifetimes away,
behind which there is
nothing — Black and therefore something.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
