Skin in the Game

tradewinds
whisper to cold
brain―
own anything even dark skin
coffle shackle cracker
coil of rope

hydrocarbons
whisper to fracking
brain―
own anything even native skin
DAPL attack-dogs water cannon
icy weather

ambition
ambition occupies skin
whispers to
brain―
again and again
everything

Jemshed Khan was born overseas but lives and works in Kansas and Missouri. Much of his writing deals with ethical misgivings. He has published a few dozen poems: Unlikely Stories (#BlackArtMatters), Read Local , Rigorous, Rat's Ass Review, chapbook NanoText (Medusa's Laugh Press), Clockwise Cat, shufPoetry, Pilcrow & Dagger, Heartland:150 Kansas Poems, Writers Resist, Howling Up To the Sky (Anthology, Pact Press), pureSlush: Lust, and I-70 Review . He is slated for I-70 Review (2018), Barzakh (Issue 10), Writers Resist Anthology, and Unlikely Stories 20th Anniversary Issue.