Word Choice features original works of fiction and poetry. Read three poems by Joshua Marie Wilkinson, with art by Adam Simon, selected by Daniel Moysaenko.

 

A Song Called Theodicy

   after Cyrus Console

 

Why violence likes to get

unconcealed occasionally,

nightlong, & break some vessels.

You mean, the long drawn‐out

second take of the tunnel scene?

Or the scene where a child’s

encounter on the film set

gets everybody behind

the camera to crying?

That’s not the wound

we thought long for—

Nor even the one we knew

we might have to defend.

The coils of the springs

of the theodicy of being.

Because evil’s a bad measure

of what’s happened here

& even violence can sound

pretty easy in the right mouth.

Read full article =>