PASSIN’ THROUGH

Editor of Foul Profession and Slink
Host of the series Grotesque Survivor
Work appears in Giddy Grimace and Plot
Winner of the Seize The White Chateau prize
His books, Spoof, Quench, and Holiday Hoodie
All published by Screw your prize! editions
Are here tonight. One drink gets you all three.
Three drinks, gets you a pre-print order of
Hastily Planning Ten House Invasions
By Celebrity Guillotine imprints
Forthcoming this very fall, stay tuned y’all.
Born and raised in Iron Hoe, Idaho
He now lives in Chíngala, Florida
Where he runs A Thousand Luigis press.

HEADLINES

Twenty-two causes suddenly collapse.
Cause officials looking for survivors.
Survivors speak of total aimlessness.
Aimlessness Poets Movement makes debut.
A.P.M. prize winners jostle for fame.
Prize culture collapses without warning.
Prize officials looking for survivors.
Survivors speak of Absolute Freedom.
Absolute Freedom Poets make debut.
A.F.P. jostles for recognition.
Recognition on the verge of collapse.
Collapse now collapsing turns to poets.
Poets regain crown title for Jacking.
New causes in search of Jackers with aim.

THE SERIES

Peek at the screen. It’s two-thousand fifty.
Where they spent their youthful years. A bronze age.
There was a bar. An old vocab. Someone.
The street looks about the same. A public.
It’s a reading. It’s a demo. It’s them.
The problems of diction. A silver age.
That building wasn’t. New nation was born.
Where they spent their last years. A vocab shift.
Minor truths still roam the alleys. All smiles.
Here’s the pivot point. No, here’s the launch point.
It wasn’t about you. A golden age.
There’s always another bar. Nation croaked.
How’d it go? Who was there? Who rattled what?
Alongside generations of striped cats.

Rodrigo Toscano is a poet living in New Orleans. He is the author of twelve books of poetry. His latest three books are WHITMAN. CANNONBALL. PUEBLA (Omnidawn, 2025, a National Poetry Series finalist), The Cut Point (Counterpath, 2023), The Charm & The Dread (Fence, 2022). His other books include, In Range, Explosion Rocks Springfield, Deck of Deeds, Collapsible Poetics Theater, To Leveling Swerve, Platform, Partisans, and The Disparities. His poetry has appeared in over 20 anthologies, including, Best American Poetry (2023, 2004), and Best American Experimental Poetry (BAX) His Collapsible Poetics Theater was a National Poetry Series selection. His poetry has appeared in the Boston Review, Poetry Magazine, The Bennington Review, The Kenyon Review, The Harvard Advocate, Georgia Review, Yale Review, Conduit, and Fence.