i Magazine

A poem nominated by Prof. Grace Schulman. It was written for ENG 3950, the Harman Poetry Workshop, taught by Major Jackson.

________________________________________________________________

I woke

in a hypnotic wrap,

muttering assurances

that I’m awake:

An entity

hauled to my awareness. So

I slapped dry slobbered

tinted cheeks, like my

father did so many mornings ago

with his fat animal hands,

making my eyes cross to

draw water from their covert wells.

I dragged my tongue through

the graveolent bowl

of my mouth, to lure my mind

from the terrorized heart that

elbowed at my chest in

frightened excitement.

He’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead

Soothes it, into a peaceful thump

—–

Growing up in Ghana, Jane Odartey wanted to be many things, yet surprisingly never thought to be a writer, though she spent most of her free time scribbling and reading. In Baruch, the yawns calculated by Calculus pushed her to the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, where she was fortunate to sit in the inspiring classrooms of Prof. Grace Schulman, Prof. Emily Di Martino, Prof. Timothy Aubry, Prof. Corey Mead and Prof. Major Jackson. These amazing English professors helped her see the potential writer in herself.

Topic: Fall 2010, Fiction & Poetry Tags: None

This entry was posted on Friday, October 15th, 2010 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Fall 2010, Fiction & Poetry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.