Copula

Joshua McKinney

what if
if what
we think
is is is
sacred be-
fore the
subject
sucked in-
to predication
completes
any thing?
Or
if is is a
bond, band,
what if what
is does is
tie the pliant
spirit of
a person
to the act-
of-being
and so
in fact un-
tie the price-
less is of
who one is,
the Is in
any of us?

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Author’s Note: This poem developed out of my linguistic musing upon the concept of identity and the ways in which language both liberates and enslaves. I think of it, broadly speaking, as a poem of social justice.

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Joshua McKinney’s most recent book of poetry is Small Sillion (Parlor Press, 2019). His work has appeared in such journals as Boulevard, Denver Quarterly, Kenyon Review, New American Writing, and many others. He is the recipient of The Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize, The Dickinson Prize, The Pavement Saw Chapbook Prize, and a Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative Writing. A member of Senkakukan Dojo of Sacramento, California, he has studied Japanese sword arts for over thirty years.