Walt(z) with 8 Million Souls
If the Empire State’s the tube
of Whitman’s kaleidoscope
Americana, would he
love us still, permute
diastole in response
syncopational to
Beyoncé’s call?
The nation’s cruiser
sinks ever deeper
into the Hudson.
J.M. Hall has published a mini-chapbook collection and individual poems in numerous literary journals, including Folio, Shampoo, and Roanoke Review. Since earning his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Vanderbilt University, he has authored forty peer-reviewed journal articles and coedited an anthology on mass incarceration (entitled Philosophy Imprisoned), and is currently Assistant Professor of Philosophy at William Paterson University. He also has over twenty years’ experience as a dancer and choreographer.