Poem of the Week | October 21, 2013
Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers: "The Frontier"
This week we feature a new poem by Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers. Rogers is the author of Chord Box (University of Arkansas Press, 2013), finalist for the Miller Williams Prize. Her poems appear in Crazyhorse, Prairie Schooner, FIELD, Crab Orchard Review, AGNI Online, Kenyon Review Online, POOL, and other journals. A graduate of Oberlin College and the MFA program at Cornell University, she is currently an inaugural fellow at The Kenyon Review, where she writes, edits, and teaches.
Author’s Note:
“The Frontier” was inspired by the first panoramic photos of Mars. I was struck by how the planet’s surface resembled the set of a Western film, and the usual themes of that genre—landscape, technology, isolation, violence, conflict with indigenous peoples—became the subjects of the poem. In both its images and physical form, the poem also explores the effects of living in a state of lowered gravity, both literally and figuratively. Ultimately, I think “The Frontier” serves as a kind of warning, citing the consequences of exploration and colonization.
The Frontier
Horses are dead. Whiskey’s still
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