A Poem For Wednesday

Dish poetry editor Alice Quinn writes:

r. erica doyle is the winner of this year’s Norma Farber Award from the Poetry Society of America for a first book of original poetry written by an American and published in a standard edition in 2012. Doyle’s book entitled proxy is powerful and has inspired powerful praise, including the following from Marilyn Nelson, who judged the contest, “Every surprising, beautiful, take-no-prisoners sentence of proxy reminds me how inventive language might expand our experience of our flesh, make it new, deepen our connection to it. . . .” Below is a prose poem from this award-winning book.

An untitled poem from proxy:

If she were any closer, you’d eat her for dinner. As it is, you’re starving. And not. You weather this all with seeming good humor. Write notes to amuse yourself. You have become too earnest, trying so hard to mean something important. Watch the drain and hear your stomach growl. Negroes make me hungry, too, she says. You need an explanation but say nothing to this boastful non sequitur. You want to amuse her with your bones.

(From proxy © 2013 by r. erica doyle. Used by kind permission of Belladonna Press. Photo by Flickr user Greg)