A Body in Pretty Boy
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This poem considers how contemporary tragedies can echo the tragedies of American history. It is a ghost story, and as such, it invokes bodies of water around the nation, including here in Maryland, that hide sunken towns. Often, it was the communities of working class and poor people that were sunk for the sake of reservoir and dam projects, particularly those of working class and poor people of color. Whether development induced displacement or failures of capitalist greed, each site named leaves a sunken ghost town below the surface.
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Anthony Moll is a Queer poet, essayist and educator. Their first book, Out of Step: a Memoir, won the Non/Fiction prize and a Lambda Literary Award for bisexual nonfiction. Their poetry has been recognized with the Knott Poetry Prize and the Adele V. Holden Prize for Creative Excellence. Anthony teaches writing and literature in Maryland.