SELLING BOOKS ON GOVERNORS ISLAND by Sarah Sarai

SELLING BOOKS ON GOVERNORS ISLAND

I told Jenna
one poetry book
equals
an Oxford English Dictionary
or two boxes of
Girl Scout Cookies,

equivalencies being
the lifeblood of poetry,
along with the rigmarole:
aa bb cc,
metaphor, simile.
Equivalencies.

As in 155 murdered
children
are equivalent to
310 parents of
murdered children,
maybe more.
There are aunts,
cousins, grandparents.
Sibs, also.

Love is love. Just, its
focus can be mutilated
by Tomahawk missiles
and stored in dead-end files.

“Pete Hegseth,”
“Donald Trump.”


*Emailing my theory of equivalencies to Indolent Books pressmate Jenna Le prompted this poem.

First posted on: Second Coming No. 605 — September 16, 2026 / Second Coming is "a poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by Donald Trump and his fascist regime. It is a sponsored project of Indolent Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Consider becoming a paid subscriber or making a one-time tax-deductible donation to support Second Coming.  https://secondcoming.substack.com.

Poetry Squawks - at Indolent Books - a new weekly feature

from Harvard Museums' collection; what a beautiful squawking bird!; Jean-Baptiste Oudry, French, 1686-1755) 

The latest feature on the Indolent Books' website is a weekly-ish column - Poetry Squawk. A pretty great name, as is Indolent Books. In the column's first iteration, as "Writers on Writing," Poetry Squawk was intended to encourage poets to discuss means and methods native to their processes.

It still serves that function. But Michael Broder, Indolent's founder, broadened the scope of the column, if only by changing the name. Some squawks are loud. Here are links to a few poets' Squawks:

Jenna Lê's Secrecy and the Writing Life: "Like all kids who grow up to be writers, I was a daydreamer from the start."

Antoinette Brim's Why I Bury My Treasure: "I love trash T.V. Not the trash television of Kardashian fame. But, real trash—Flea Market Flip and Antiques Road Show trash—stuff found in dank basements."

B.B.P. Hosmillo's Towards an (Ins)Urgent Kind of Intimacy: "Once an American scholar in Japanese Studies shared a Japanese folktale with me."

To get Poetry Squawks delivered to your email, sign up on the Indolent site, here. Indolent Books is the publisher of Geographies of Soul and Taffeta, my second poetry collection.