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April is National Poetry Month, a time when we celebrate poetry and recognize how it has shaped American culture. This year, KUT is participating in National Poetry Month by sharing poems written by students in the Blank Page creative writing programs at Kealing and Fulmore Middle Schools and the Writers' Workshop at Rawson Saunders School. You can read the and listen to the poems here, and you can also listen to the poems read on KUT 90.5 FM throughout the month of April.

The Magician

The magician sits quietly on a stool

but his presence booms and echoes throughout the theatre.

His toes perched on a rung,

like a pitch black vulture in a bowtie and top hat.

He leaps off the three-legged stool,

concurrently tipping his hat.                                                                                                                                                                                   

He leans down and taps his cane to the floor

and dense rose bushes pullulate

to his right and his left.

Fulsome applause thunders from hands

“The first act is done!” the magician exclaimed. “Let us proceed.”

And so day approached night

Until the wizard prepared for the finale with climactic tricks

all better than the last.                                                                                                                                                                 

Two minutes before ten

He hangs his hat on a hook from the ceiling.

Strikes the stage rhythmically

One-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three.

He disappears through the floor, nowhere to be seen.

And from out of the hat flies

a midnight-blue raven.

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