Prolit

a literary magazine about money, work, & class

from The Corridors (1)

employees
touch
documents

---

documents
touch
flame

---

give
and
take

---

basement
heat
shield

---

shredded
particle
oven

---

the
soot
tangles

#

false floor
beneath
the baths

---

crawlspace
a half-body’s
height

---

employees
between
the bricks

---

lumber
by the
armful

---

breath
becomes
steam

---

upward, into
the bathing
class

#

this
strict
area

---

arc
of
cough

---

here
you
are

#


from The Corridors (2)

all literature
disguises
the actors

---

the
private
residents

---

the
structural
changes

---

eventually,
sodden beams
give

---

the
balcony
lumbers

#

gilt
becomes
the neighborhood

---

the neighborhood
becomes
less secure

---

bodies
become
mystified

---

and
attack
the street

#

don’t
mistake
it

---

their
flung
concrete

---

their
boxing glove
sedan

---

they loose
their hands

and break
the block

#


Brendan Allen

Brendan Allen is a Kansan poet living in Philadelphia. He's currently an MFA student and writing instructor at Temple University. Before that, he spent a lot of time bouncing between school, farm labor, and the food service industry. His poetry has appeared in Landlocked Magazine.