allegiance
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About this ebook
francine j. harris
francine j. harris is a Detroit native whose recent work has appeared in Rattle, Callaloo, and Michigan Quarterly Review and she is the author of the recent chapbook between old trees. She is a Cave Canem fellow, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and is currently a Zell Post-MFA Fellowship recipient at the University of Michigan.
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Book preview
allegiance - francine j. harris
© 2012 by francine j. harris
Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced without formal permission
Manufactured in the United States of America
16 15 14 13 12 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
harris, francine j.
Allegiance : poems / by francine j. harris.
p. cm.—(Made in Michigan writers series)
ISBN 978-0-8143-3618-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)—
ISBN 978-0-8143-3619-9 (e-book)
I. Title.
PS3608.A78284A79 2012
811'.6—dc23
2011030703
Designed and composed by Quemadura
in Apollo and Trade Gothic typefaces
allegiance
POEMS BY
francine j. harris
WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
DETROIT
made in michigan writers series
general editors
MICHAEL DELP, Interlochen Center for the Arts
M. L. LIEBLER, Wayne State University
advisory editors
MELBA JOYCE BOYD, Wayne State University
STUART DYBEK, Western Michigan University
KATHLEEN GLYNN
JERRY HERRON, Wayne State University
LAURA KASISCHKE, University of Michigan
FRANK RASHID, Marygrove College
DOUG STANTON
A complete listing of the books in this series can be found online at wsupress.wayne.edu
allegiance
in memory of mary grace johnson, frank johnson and david blair
And the mirages, the
mirages—
I knew what they were
yet often
changed my course
and followed them.
ROBERT HAYDEN
. . .names I called you behind your back,
sour and delicious, secret and unrepeatable,
the names of flowers that open only once. . .
RICHARD SIKEN
contents
Cover
Copyright
jumping in
sift
costume jewelry
i live in detroit
when it’s time to move
what you’d find buried in the dirt under charles f. kettering sr. high school
footing, off guard
flashes—cyan / magenta / yellow
build us a jesus
would like to first thank god
another finger for the wound
the splashing of the bush
lost pen
confessional poetry
somewhere outside acme, i believe in castles.
choosing poets, out of town, like choosing a date
there is always someone. that’s the problem.
why i haven’t written
i used to write
wear metal
intention
(i belong to that voice. it owns what i breathe.)
fume
you, old meany
three feet of personal space
one’s nature
to the man on the bus
you can’t remove the city
crooked teeth
senses
what teeth poems ain’t
documents
never had to use a gun
neighbor
from the bottom
the road to jackson has orchids
rub against it, where
sit with you all night
midday nap
feeder
until it comes
something in the water
parturient
they seem to gather in one park
between old trees
addicted to addict
dickhole and denise
message from wolfgang my mother left on the refrigerator
not now
eight days until your ashes turn one
roommates
in case there’s trouble
blues for a mania
red is the mess
katherine with the lazy eye. short. and not a good poet.
i swear
allegiance
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
jumping in
sift
i am not all water
nor does the cue ball sink me
nor the cowboy rope me, nor the monk
sit through me.
i am a thousand faces at
the bottom of the bottom’s gravel. the
sea-sharpened stones that clink and
soundlessly shift
make one.
and
i am not all river
not the sand on the tongue’s first someone
or even a falling star.
i am all tooth and nail breaks
that bitter underwater
and a million years of sea-smash
dirt in your eye
to dig out.
i am not all nigger:
a black hole crooning in the night.
a country song in a deep
jukebox
chewed down and rumbling.
so who decides
who belongs here
which tooth should have been kicked out when
which hole ought to be filled. this
is what i think:
every city has a country bar.
i am not always so tough when i walk in.
what is rain to the desert
is just another full mouth in some place like portland.
and i wonder if there are niggers here in oregon.
black-out dolls,