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1. Poetry
Southern roots, sundry hurts, hells and losses, to home again.
Poems that move from The South to a wider world and witness. 2. Essay
St. Louis, its warts and grace-notes. |
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Early Red Bride
I was born baldly red, fed maraschino cherries
and strawberries – real Florida strawberries
red to the tip and half a hand big – I got
Red Eye swimming at the lake, ate Red Hots
at the movies Saturday afternoons oh I wore
a red hibiscus in my hair and in a halter dress
did jitterbug under strung lanterns
of the schoolyard. Under the turning mirrored
globe of the ballroom, in my red
velvet sheath dress I slow-danced,
and so married, still in my teens, and rubies
hung in my long-pierced ears.
(First published in Chester H. Jones Foundation National Poetry Competition Winners 1989.)
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