Jeremy Teddy Karn
Jeremy Teddy Karn is a Liberian poet and an MFA candidate at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His chapbook, Miryam Magdalit, was chosen for inclusion in the New-Generation African Poets' Chapbook Boxset (APBF), 2021. His work has been published in several magazines and journals. @iamjeremykarn
the book of names
in my country men with guns are holier than God
we lay prostratein devotion to them
last treasured prayers ladder down from our mouths
name is an old well drying out into
silence that unearths how fear grows in
the chest like cement bricks—
in the black dirty sand smeared with blood
of our next-door neighbors i write their names
whenever they’re called every name is answered
with a gunshot and a small soldier kicking its bearer into
a mass grave dug by our uncles
my small black hands
tremble—
i want to sleep my way out of my mother’s voice
convincing me our names are not the next
to be screamed out
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