Academy of American Poets
View Cart | Log In 
Subscribe | More Info 
Find a Poet or Poem
Advanced Search >
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Evie Shockley
Evie Shockley
Embracing both free verse and formal structures, Evie Shockley straddles the divide between traditional and experimental poetics...
More >
Want more poems?
Subscribe to our
Poem-A-Day emails.
FURTHER READING
Poems about Identity
Dream In Which I Meet Myself
by Lynn Emanuel
Instructions on Damaging the Monster's Cloak of Invisibility
by Bradley Paul
Mirrors
by Tada Chimako
mulberry fields
by Lucille Clifton
On Anti-Biography
by Will Alexander
Self-portrait as Thousandfurs
by Stacy Gnall
The Purpose of Ritual
by Melissa Broder
Woman in Front of Poster of Herself
by Alice Notley
Sponsor a Poet Page | Add to Notebook | Email to Friend | Print

The Fare-well Letters [excerpt]

 
by Evie Shockley

dear ink jet,


          black fast. greasy lightning.
won't smear. won't rub off.
          defense: a visual screen: ask
an octopus (bioaquadooloop).
          footprints faster than a speed-
ing bully, tracking dirt all
          over the page. make every
word count. one. two. iamb.
          octoroon. half-breed. mutt.
mulatto. why are there so few
          hybrids on the road? because
they can't reproduce. trochee
          choking okay mocha. ebony,
by contrast, says so much.









From the new black, published by Wesleyan University Press. Copyright © 2011 by Evie Shockley. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.
Larger TypeLarger Type | Home | Help | Contact Us | Privacy Policy Copyright © 1997 - 2013 by Academy of American Poets.