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Wednesday, November 11, 2026

MISSISSIPPI MIDTERMS

by Ann Tweedy




If you block another’s path
it may be your undoing          powers,
seas          shift           in earth’s abacus
136 years          since Reconstruction
is next to nothing          human vanity
to mistake it           longer than our lifespans
for forever

Ann Tweedy grew up in Southeastern Massachusetts but has spent most of her adult life in various parts of the West Coast, the Midwest, and now the South. In addition to being a poet and essayist, she is also a law professor and Tribal judge. Her full-length book, The Body’s Alphabet won a Bisexual Book Award and was a finalist for both a Lambda Literary Award and a Golden Crown Literary Award. Her chapbooks include Beleaguered Oases, White Out, A Registry of Survival, and Wind Through a Beak-Drilled Branch, which won the 2026 South Dakota State Poetry Society Annual Chapbook Contest. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Hamline University. She currently divides her time between South Dakota and Mississippi.