Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Planet

when mad oceans roar and rain’s a spear: when rage propels the rising tide
and sewers spill: when tempest roils around your head—do you believe
your gods will hear?

will you board up, hammering defiance at a yellow sky?
or duct-tape, making diamonds out of window-glass? will you seal
your basement, let your washer/drier die, so you can live?

to fill a bugout bag with bullets, hop the last bus to a better place—or stay?
freezing, powerless and huddled in your preacher’s tub: playing
truth-or-dare as water rises: praying to Beelzebub—

rapture, rapture! water’s lapping at your chin: Noah’s nowhere
and the only bird’s an albatross with broken wings—

flood insurance? I’m an ocean! can you swim?

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Jude Marr reads “Sinners…”

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Jude Marr (they, them) is a Pushcart-nominated nonbinary poet. Jude’s full-length collection,We Know Each Other By Our Wounds, came…