We Starve
Crumbling
Pastries
Falling
Empty
Crumbling
Stay
Afloat
Kids
Crumbling
We Starve
Jack Morrow
1/2022
______________________
Jack Morrow is a senior at Arrowhead Union High School. In his free time, he loves to ski, lift weights, and embark upon adventures with his friends. Morrow is thrilled (as is TSPJ) with the composition of his first Skinny about child hunger affecting children all over the world.
I Ask My Grandfather Why He Won’t Speak English
He says, I keep my country in my mouth.
Exile
Sicilian-Ethiopian
Intersection
Blood
Exile
Loyal
Tongued
Vigilant
Exile
I keep my country in my mouth, he says.
Maura Alia Badji
6/2/2016
Maura Alia Badji is a poet/writer/ESL teacher. Her writing has appeared in Aeolian Harp, The Delaware Review, Pirene’s Fountain, The Buffalo News, The Phoenix Soul, Liberated Muse, Cobalt, The Wise Woman, WELTER, The Good Men Project, This City Is a Poem, Barely South Review, and other notable publications. Badji lives in Virginia Beach, with her son, Ibrahim.
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Trump State
Oh, my First
lady
and
Madam
Speaker
lady
and
America
that
lady
first, oh, my.
No more
them
us
make
us
them
then
only
us
them
no more.
All that we need
boom!
Economy
employment
Obamacare
boom!
Just,
one
more
boom
all that we need.
Migrant, migrant, migrant
caravans
trucks
buses
children
caravans
tremendous
onslaught
lawless
caravans–
Migrant! Migrant! Migrant!
Behind walls
wombs
make
holy
Americans
wombs
born
unborn
holy
wombs
behind walls.
Endless wars
bad
Russia
China
possibly
bad
preparing
military
for
bad
war, endless.
Keep America
first
only
under
God
first
above
all
I
first
keep America.
Chad Parenteau
3/7/2019
A Skinny is a short poem (a fixed form) that consists of eleven lines. The first and eleventh lines can be any length (although shorter lines are favored). The eleventh and last line must be repeated using the same words from the first and opening line (however they can be rearranged). The second, sixth, and tenth lines must be identical. (Note: Words in the last line of Skinnys do not have to match exactly words in the first line. They can have variations of root words, like Sestinas.) The Skinny was created by Truth Thomas in the literary crucible of the Tony Medina Poetry Workshop at Howard University. The Skinny Poetry Journal (TSPJ) is based in Washington, D.C., and edited by Truth Thomas.
The point of the Skinny, or Skinnys, is to convey a vivid image with as few words as possible. Skinny poems can be about any subject. They can also be linked, like Haiku, Senryu or Tanka. To submit your Skinnys for TSPJ publishing consideration, email: theskinnypoetryjournal@gmail.com with your poem, or poems, copied into the body of your email. Here is an example of a Skinny:
Old Testament Kwon Do
Boards don’t hit back—you must
if
beaten
like
omelets
if
whipped
like
cream
if
Boards don’t hit back, you must—
Truth Thomas
from Speak Water
(photo by Melanie Henderson)
The Skinny Poetry Nation 