‘‘One boy leaps from a bridge into a river, and the ripples from his fall ring out to encompass a nation. All that remains unspoken in the reportage-the sorrow and compassion and anger-is given eloquent voice as Suzanne Parker documents another tragedy that challenges our political experiment. Grief-stricken and abiding,Viral addresses our ongoing struggle for democracy.’’ -Michael WatersWritten in response to the tragic suicide of Tyler Clementi,Viral explores the complex issues of sexuality, shame, and masculinity. Grief and loss guide us as Suzanne Parker investigates the issues of privacy, voyeurism, and human contact, seeking to understand what it means to live in a world where technology can quickly turn a dark computer screen into an open window.Only KissingThe webcam showed only the two men kissingIn the eyes nowa wilderness-when the birds opentheir beaksnot in song,but a breathescapes from the rigorof killing and feedingand climbing to find,again, the swayingof the grass, the nudginga body makes as it moves,no matter howquietly, throughthe world,setting its neighborsin motion-How do you sleepwhen the sirenis your own exhaled cry:Oh Christ."Suzanne Parker‘’s poems have appeared inBarrow Street,Cimarron Review,Rattapallax, and numerous other journals. She is a winner of the Alice M. Sellars Award from the Academy of American Poets, was a poetry fellow at the Prague Summer Seminars, and has received fellowships and scholarships from Sarah Lawrence College Summer Writers Seminar andPrairie Schooner. Suzanne directs the creative writing program at Brookdale Community College and is an editor forMEAD: A Magazine of Literature and Libations.‘‘One boy leaps from a bridge into a river, and the ripples from his fall ring out to encompass a nation. All that remains unspoken in the reportage-the sorrow and compassion and anger-is given eloquent voice as Suzanne Parker documents another tragedy that challenges our political experiment. Grief-stricken and abiding,Viral addresses our ongoing struggle for democracy.’’ -Michael WatersWritten in response to the tragic suicide of Tyler Clementi,Viral explores the complex issues of sexuality, shame, and masculinity. Grief and loss guide us as Suzanne Parker investigates the issues of privacy, voyeurism, and human contact, seeking to understand what it means to live in a world where technology can quickly turn a dark computer screen into an open window.Only KissingThe webcam showed only the two men kissingIn the eyes nowa wilderness-when the birds opentheir beaksnot in song,but a breathescapes from the rigorof killing and feedingand climbing to find,again, the swayingof the grass, the nudginga body makes as it moves,no matter howquietly, throughthe world,setting its neighborsin motion-How do you sleepwhen the sirenis your own exhaled cry:“Oh Christ."Suzanne Parker‘’s poems have appeared inBarrow Street,Cimarron Review,Rattapallax, and numerous other journals. She is a winner of the Alice M. Sellars Award from the Academy of American Poets, was a poetry fellow at the Prague Summer Seminars, and has received fellowships and scholarships from Sarah Lawrence College Summer Writers Seminar andPrairie Schooner. Suzanne directs the creative writing program at Brookdale Community College and is an editor forMEAD: A Magazine of Literature and Libations.”
