PoetryMagazine.com
Kirby
Wright
USA
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Kirby Wright was born
and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. He
is a graduate of Punahou School in
Honolulu and the University of
California at San Diego. He
received his MFA in Creative Writing
from San Francisco State
University. Wright has been
nominated for two Pushcart Prizes
and is a past recipient of the Ann
Fields Poetry Prize, the Academy of
American Poets Award, the Browning
Society Award for Dramatic
Monologue, and Arts Council Silicon
Valley Fellowships in Poetry and The
Novel. BEFORE THE CITY, his first
book of poetry, took First Place at
the 2003 San Diego Book Awards.
Wright is also the author of the
companion novels PUNAHOU BLUES and
MOLOKA’I NUI AHINA, both set in
Hawaii. He was a Visiting Fellow at
the 2009 International Writers
Conference in Hong Kong, where he
represented the Pacific Rim region
of Hawaii and lectured with Pulitzer
Prize winner Gary Snyder.
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MESSAGE FROM VISTA,
CALIFORNIA
A video from the
Middle East arrives.
The national threat level shifts to orange.
F-18s drop 500-pound practice bombs
On the Whiskey and Zulu regions
Of neighboring Camp Pendleton.
The new President, the one who voted as
A Senator against invasion,
Says he’s sending more troops
Into Afghanistan
To end the war early.
This week, he ignores body counts
To focus on health care reform.
Americans root for Olympians
Racing and dancing on ice
While children are buried
In the Kabul Desert.
“Collateral damage,”
The General says, chewing gum.
Twilight bombing runs
Come during the Late Show—
My walls and tables quiver,
Windows rattle like tambourines.
Newborn hawks in the Torrey Pine
Screech at the planets and stars.
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© Copyright, 2012,
Kirby Wright.
All rights reserved. |