{"id":1369,"date":"2026-04-15T19:51:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T19:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/?p=1369"},"modified":"2026-07-13T18:02:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:02:20","slug":"exclusion-zone-poem-published-in-midway-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/2026\/04\/15\/exclusion-zone-poem-published-in-midway-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry Contest Finalist &#8220;Exclusion Zone&#8221; Published in Midway Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"676\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mikepiero.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chernobyl.jpg?resize=1024%2C676&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1371\" style=\"width:624px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mikepiero.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chernobyl-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C676&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mikepiero.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chernobyl-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C198&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mikepiero.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chernobyl-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C507&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mikepiero.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chernobyl-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1014&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mikepiero.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chernobyl-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1352&amp;ssl=1 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;m grateful to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/open.substack.com\/users\/59000625-midway-journal?utm_source=mentions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Midway Journal<\/a>&nbsp;for publishing my poem, &#8220;Exclusion Zone,&#8221; in their recent issue. The poem responds to Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine, particularly the drone strike that hit Chernobyl\u2019s protective dome on Feb. 14, 2025, as it intersects with personal queer histories that also feature \u201cexclusion zones\u201d of varying kinds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read the issue and poem for free through the links below:<br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/midwayjournal.com\/volume-20-issue-2\/\">Midway Journal Vol. 20, Issue 2, Full Issue<\/a><br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/midwayjournal.com\/exclusion-zone\/\">&#8220;Exclusion Zone&#8221;<\/a><br><br>Congrats to all of the contributors, especially those winners of Midway Journal&#8217;s recent contest! Special thanks to editors Samantha Sharp and Ralph Pennel for their continued support of my work&#8211;thank you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m grateful to&nbsp;Midway Journal&nbsp;for publishing my poem, &#8220;Exclusion Zone,&#8221; in their recent issue. The poem responds to Russia\u2019s war against [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publication-poetry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mikepiero.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chernobyl-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1690&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1369"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1403,"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369\/revisions\/1403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}