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      December 6, 2017Christine RheinIn Detroit, What Counts as Grace

      Trees growing from the roofs
      of empty factories and houses,
      birds nesting deep inside.
       
      Children at their desks
      without breakfast, busy adding
      and subtracting, the lunch bell
      not ringing until 12:45.
       
      The teacher, mid-morning,
      with snack mix from home,
      pouring a little extra
      into the shyest cupped hands.
       
      The men who stand and fish,
      casting lines into the river,
      office towers soaring at their backs.
       
      New farmers, in their agri-hoods,
      watering and weeding, growing
      peas, beans, Motor City Kale,
      making Wild Detroit Honey.
       
      The cooks who serve up
      Coney Dogs, burritos,
      shawarma—even at 3 a.m.—
      singing out the orders.
       
      And the woman at Cass and Forest
      dancing by her boom box
      every afternoon, her feet 
      sliding on the sidewalk, 
      trailing through the snow.

      from #57 - Fall 2017

      Christine Rhein

      “I grew up in Detroit, and I’ve always lived in southeastern Michigan. When I began studying and writing poetry, in my mid-30s, I discovered the work of Philip Levine. I was inspired not only by his poems, but also by the circumstances of his early life. As a daughter of immigrants and as an automotive engineer, I suddenly saw, through Levine, that I might dare write poems.”