Flattened by Susan Tepper

They found truth flattened 

under a large rock. 

Armies of civil engineers 

and all their equipment 

strength and resolve

to move the rock

Then what—

Decades under the rock

could truth stand on its own

filling its lungs to capacity

O this fetid air!

Or would truth prefer 

to remain incognito

settling back under the rock

to wait for the final reckoning.

Susan Tepper is the author of nine published books of fiction and poetry. Her two most recent titles are CONFESS (poetry from Cervena Barva Press, 2020) and a road novel WHAT DRIVES MEN (Wilderness House Press, 2019) that was shortlisted at American Book Fest. Other honors and awards include eighteen Pushcart Prize Nominations, a Pulitzer Nomination by Cervena Barva Press for the novel ‘What May Have Been’ (re-written for adaptation as a stage play to open in NY next year), shortlisted in Zoetrope Contest for the Novel (2003), NPR’s Selected Shorts for ‘Deer’ published in American Letters & Commentary (ed. Anna Rabinowitz), Second Place Winner in StorySouth Million Writers Award, Best of 17 Years of Vestal Review and more. Tepper is a native New Yorker. www.susantepper.com