“Memories of Nibelheim” & “The Death of Superman”
by Patrick Blagrave
Memories of Nibelheim
“When it’s time for the planet to die, you’ll understand that you know absolutely nothing.” Bugenhagen, Final Fantasy VII
when it’s time for the planet to die
I will think of that house on oxford ave,
its various green walls I’m sure I saw
burn down: nothing was left standing last time
I was home. & yet sometimes I go back
& it’s still standing, save the tree out front,
gone. & the pavement no longer shudders
how I remember; the craters in it
vanished. brick by brick a close replica
built at great cost to fool me. the people
were replaced by employees. a company
paid them to ignore it. the company
bought the world. I understand that I know
nothing, & when everything else fails, so will I.
The Death of Superman
I who was built for it
& always led
to believe it would be radiant
pieces of my home
to be ended instead
by something so ugly
& brutish, that punched me
like I was a man
I hope no one else
could withstand
for as long as I did
doomsday
Patrick Blagrave is a poet, editor, and debtor from Philadelphia. His work often explores capitalism’s cruelty and absurdity, and tries to imagine futures without it. His debut collection, Profit | Prophet, is available from Recenter Press. Some of Patrick’s writing can be found in 68to05, Peace, Land, and Bread, SORTES, Recenter Press Poetry Journal, and Bedfellows. Prolit Magazine, the literary journal he founded in 2019, publishes writing and art explicitly centered around money, work, and class.
Charlie Saxton is a painter from Canton, Ohio.
This month’s special issue “NOSTALGIA IS?” was guest edited by Kevin Latimer and Brendan Joyce of GRIEVELAND. Brendan Joyce is the co-organizer of Grieveland, a student at Cleveland State University and the author of Character Limit (2019) and Love & Solidarity (2020). Kevin Latimer’s poems can be found in Ninth Letter, jubilat, Poetry Northwest, Passages North, & elsewhere. His plays have been produced by convergence-continuum. Along with Brendan Joyce, he co-organizes GRIEVELAND, a publishing project. He has won fellowships, scholarships, & awards from The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland State University, & Twelve Literary Arts. He is the author of ZOETROPE (2020). He lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
