Blackbird an online journal of literature and the arts Fall 2007  Vol. 6 No. 2

POETRY

Chris Abani
Victoria Chang
Michael Chitwood
Keith Ekiss
Gibson Fay-LeBlanc
Beth Ann Fennelly
Raza Ali Hasan
James Hoch
Cyan James
Julia Johnson
Larry Levis
Khaled Mattawa
Timothy O’Keefe
Catherine Pierce
Jon Pineda
John Poch
Austin Segrest
Louie Skipper
Ron Smith
Robert Thomas
Joshua Weiner
Lesley Wheeler
Charles Wright



RAZA ALI HASAN

66

Bilal’s world, black world, mortgaged world, third world,
the black pupil in the roving eye of the earth.

Bilal’s compass had redrawn it as the crescent-world.
Warmth of the sun had made it fertile.

Now mercurial, it quickens at his name.
In locked, arid hopelessness, a sparkle in the eye. 
 

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