Poem-of-the-Week: Dan Vera

Judicial Temperament

Thurgood whispers in Sonia's ears

You know they said the same things about me?
Master two languages, graduate at the top
They still sneer and drawl
about how 'qualified' you are."

Si, asi siempre es. she sighs.

The only quality the senators want is a mirror on the bench.

I await the sounds of Sotomayor
Rolling her Rs through oral arguments
Putting the Latin tenses in all the right places
Ruffling the feathers of the old birds
who learned their pronunciation second hand.

Inter rusticos
In forma pauperis
In flagrante delicto.

-Dan Vera


Used by permission.

Dan Vera is the author of a book of poems, The Space Between Our Danger and Delight (Beothuk Books, 2008). Poems of his have appeared in Delaware Poetry Review, The Amistad, Konch, and the anthologies DC Poets Against the War and Shaping Sanctuary. He is co-founder and co-publisher of Vrzhu Press, managing editor of the gay culture journal White Crane, founder of the Brookland Area Writers & Artists (BAWA), and co-hosts the monthly BAWA reading series.

Vera appeared on the panel Gay and Lesbian Poetry in the 40th Year Since Stonewall: History, Craft, Equality during Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness 2010.

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