2nd FLATTEST STATE
By Noah Slowik
Rabble-rousers
Night traffic performing cautious deeds;
good people awaited sacred sins
while diligent ones are sound asleep,
unnecessary suffering begins.
Shadow-wanderers seeking starlight
could never resist earthly desires;
undeterred by countless warning signs,
liable for action that transpires.
Travelers travelling nowhere soon,
unknowingly destined for danger.
privileged, lost without a clue,
innocent; trouble is no stranger.
To the Freshman Lit Major
Feel these words jump off the page
and build a home in your cranium
like a loud, rolling whisper
from a vast, abandoned mountain range.
Great art isn’t really about Bilbo or Prufrock,
it’s about her, you, him, not me.
Take your time exploring Middle-earth,
you’ll have plenty still for visions and revisions.
Whatever you do, don’t trust anyone;
especially not me, this poem.
The best advice I ever got
was that all my professors are wrong.
The only person who is right is you,
as long as your reading is true.
2nd Flattest State
Illinois: 2nd flattest state.
Thoroughly unremarkable
tourists might assume.
Wind gusts shake plains.
The land of Rolling Meadows
and Highland Park.
Parallel to the ocean blue;
a microcosm, nonetheless.
Cloud bubbles, huge
ivory buffalo.
Hypnotized by
prairies industrialized.
Proud of zilch,
except corn.
Opposite of boring
you dimwitted idiot.
Don’t never forget
the 2nd flattest state.
About the Author:
Noah Slowik is an undergrad at Lewis University in Romeoville, IL double majoring in English and Secondary Education. He has never been published before. At Lewis, he is an assistant poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction editor for the school’s international literary journal, Jet Fuel Review. He maintains a music blog titled “Between Rock and an Indie Place,” and is also a tutor for the Writing Center and a reporter for the school newspaper, The Flyer.
