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a poem about running over skateboarders

By Zach Powers

Poem

in the dark, skateboarders
   look like people

walking in the middle
   of the street

until they glide and
   become ghosts

loose clothes only aid
   the illusion

everything that moves forward
   billows backward

wanting most of all to
   be where it’s been

my headlights creep
   up on them

in the glow is
   resurrection

but only for the moment
   between when

the light hits them but
   before the bumper

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ZACH POWERS lives and writes in Savannah, Georgia. He is writing this bio himself, and writing it in the third person, which to him feels rather pompous. He is averse to pomposity and is really quite personable. You'd like him. Give Zach Powers a chance. Why do you have to be so judgmental? His work, equally self-absorbed, has appeared in Caketrain, The Bitter Oleander, Opium Magazine, Quiddity, Pindeldyboz, Paradigm Journal, PANK, and maybe elsewhere but he can't remember. He is the founder and co-host of the literary performance Seersucker Live (SeersuckerLive.com). He leads the writers’ workshop at the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home, where he also serves on the board of directors. You can find him teaching a couple days a week at the University of South Carolina Beaufort. His writing for television won an Emmy. Get to know him at ZachPowers.com.

3 responses to “a poem about running over skateboarders”

  1. Rich Boucher says:
    April 30, 2012 at 2:15 pm

    “…between when\the light hits them but
    \before the bumper…”

    Love this. Love the whole poem. Thank you.

    Reply
  2. Don Mitchell says:
    April 30, 2012 at 9:35 pm

    Nice work. Perhaps more relevant than you knew:

    http://www.buffalonews.com/city/police-courts/courts/article827920.ece

    The trial’s ongoing.

    Reply
  3. Hank cherry says:
    June 23, 2012 at 4:38 pm

    I’m going to get in my car and look for skaters right now!

    Really well written, full of zest humor and maybe some Creeley in there too! Marvelous!

    Reply

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