Accusations
By Adrienne Banks

I watch old poet men
sit, stroke billy goat beards
under the russet-colored
chinese lantern tree.
I wonder

Do the storms you command with pen
relieve the August ground?
Do you lose your poems and ink blood
to gutters in downpours?

Do you flood our house you arsonist?
Does your mud take my children,
or do your poems exist only
in Faulkner furious
turquoise and indigo books?
do you write fairy storms,

or like I,
do you break your head through every
window pane in the house,
to get at the storm
beyond pages?

— Adrienne Banks is a student at Kansas University and host of “Ululations,” a poetry show that airs at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on KJHK. Poet’s Showcase features work by area poets. Submit your poetry via e-mail with a subject line of Poet’s Showcase to mpaget@ljworld.com or send typewritten (not handwritten) submissions to Mindie Paget, 645 N.H., Lawrence 66044, attn: Poet’s Showcase. Teen writers should submit their work to the 18 & Under page at teens@ljworld.com.