is a small press established in 1978 by poet and editor Judith Kerman. We specialize in contemporary literature, especially poetry and works that straddle conventional categories: Great Lakes, women, Caribbean, translations, science fiction poetry, recent immigrant experience, Judaica. Publications are in both chapbook and trade paperback formats.

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On the Bus

by Daniel Crocker

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faces look the same for a while
and are a little bit frightening
but after a few hours or so
they gain their own kind of focus
and a little boy with a drity face
turns to spit on new shoes
and homeless men with generator voices
bum cigarettes at every stop
and everyone in 10 minutes
inhales the same greasy food
while handsom black men give
basketball scores for the asking
and debate over who will take it all
and kind fat women ask, "where ya heading'?"
and give warnings against using
bust stop bathrooms
and children constantly cry
and ass and back hurt from riding
and a man comes on who stinks up the whole place
and the air conditioner is broken
and a black woman refuses
to let a chinese man sit next to her
and just when the ride and the people
can be stood no longer
the sun sinks purple into the fog
of a harrisburg valley
and everyone gathers to the windows
to look
say ohh and ahh
smile at each other
realizing that for the next 20 hours
this is our own kind of family.

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Daniel Crocker
People Everyday and other poems

Poetry. Paper, Perfect Bound
Green Bean Press, 1998
ISBN 1-89140806-2
$12 plus s&h