Excerpts
The Envied Ones
Some years ago, during a discussion of the fine arts among the colored people, a critic said, "I do not pity the Negro writer. I envy him. "I envy him for his background, for the vast and dramatic knowledge into which he is born. I envy him for his heritage of suffering and of close …
The Temples of Learning
Ling Ki came to America for an education. His cousin, on the Hu Road, had an honored friend whose brother dwelt in Canton as a tea merchant, and he knew a man who had gone to America for an education. This man lived near the river, and he dealt in rice. He was not a …
Alicia Ostriker. The Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog. University of Pittsburgh Press.
In her new collection The Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog, Alicia Suskin Ostriker brings together a trio of voices—each a living thing, each mortal and yet calling out its truths in a clear tenor. These three voices, extraordinary in their ordinariness, build conversations that whirl around each topic. They catch angles of consideration …
Lemonade
Your grandmother is on her deathbed now. She made it a long time ago. Which is to say it was made for her. Which really means she doesn’t want it but she’s going to lie down anyway. You prop her pillows for her, lace her lemonade with Demerol because she is dying and dying hurts …
Night Island
That was what they should have called it, thought Isabella, as she trudged behind Billy along the beach, phosphorescent plankton throwing off light in response to each footstep. Night for the color of the sand. Night for the hours they were awake there. Halfway to the mangroves, their flashlights, covered in red contact paper, caught …
Shake the Dark Out
Underneath, there was an ancient musicI underestimated so you could be minus and postRomance in our soul of things trundling aroundOld truths but not believing. Luck-seeking,We pretended we were young, but we were onlyFreak-making love-taking strangersShining up our contemplations, building new homesProfoundly not our own. Alone, my trope, is thisLingering over your major promises in …
Electric Rococo Recollections of Jam Tree Gully from Afar
From the upper southeast windowthe cross on the church is stark—light-globes mark its outline, contrastthe twilit harbour. It wants moreout of symmetry than is on offer. Tomorrow, the Guru is going overto Jam Tree Gully to clear the guttersof dead, dry leaves. They congestwithout style, embellish with urge,the pragmatism of making a growthmedium: in summer …
Notes from Havana
1. Today the first rest in a long time: lolling on the bed in theAC, thinking of sitting & laughing at dinner on the Plaza Vieja withP & E their second night here, first lightning, then thunder,then rain—of P passed out after dinner another night & RA in theliving room teaching E to salsa, & …
Limpopo
What a croc. This riveris the crooked line betweenrand/dollar. Neither is ours.We cannot even afford our own money. This river has caughtthe national disease, hunger.This river playsthe national pastime, hunger, like a champion.This river wears ournational dress, hunger, like a string of hip-beads.This river teems withcrocodiles. We cannot afford to house them in a parkthese …