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J. P. Grasser, a finalist in Narrative’s Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Fifteenth Annual Poetry Contests and the 2019 Narrative 30 Below Contest, received his MFA in poetry from Johns Hopkins University and his PhD from the University of Utah. He lives in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley with his wife.

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Worksong

by J. P. Grasser
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I was green. I’d simply never seen a felon
sing falsetto, but when Richie took an earbud

in two fingers, gingerly, and planted the kernel
in his ear, “Like a Virgin” scaled the same air
People on couch
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