There are three phyla of worms that, in terms of diversity and abundance, tower over the rest: the Roundworms (nematodes), the Annelids and the Flatworms.

An unconstitutional method of obtaining aid.

The American poet Ange Mlinko's fifth book is Distant Mandate (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Her title, borrowing a phrase from the writer László Krasznahorkai, refers to art's primum mobile, its primordial first domino. The drive to create art is a mandate so ancient that it should probably by now have expired, and yet when it arrives, still, it is always in a hurry.

I wanna see it painted / painted black / black as night / black as coal