Worn

by Adrienne Christian PhD

Overview

Tenderness meets pain meets joy here, offering up the voices of Black folks fostering connection with their children, their lovers, and themselves. Christian's third collection of poetry takes the reader through love and longing, and manifests how we all cope and get dressed again after the harsh reality of our world lays us bare. From ghazals about erotic kinks to the disappointment of a father, these poems explore the clothes we reach for first when loss strips us naked.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781951631093
Publisher:	Santa Fe Writer's Project
Publication date:	04/01/2021
Pages:	80
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.20(d)

About the Author

Adrienne Christian is a poet, writer, and fine art photographer. Her work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Hayden’s Ferry Review, CALYX, phoebe, The Los Angeles Review as The Editor’s Choice, and elsewhere. She is the author of two previous poetry collections, A Proper Lover (2017) and 12023 Woodmont Avenue (2013). A fellow of both Cave Canem and Callaloo writing residencies, she earned her B.A. from The University of Michigan, her M.F.A. from Pacific University, and her PhD from the University of Nebraska.

Table of Contents

I.

How to Survive When You're the Only Black in the Office or, The New H.N.I.C. 3

Wedding Dress 4

Estate Sale 6

Lincoln 7

Portrait of Everyone's Nana 8

II.

How to Make a Sunday Chicken-Frying Dress 11

B. L. Z. R. D. 2014 12

Soldier of Love 13

Portrait of My Taurus Lover, Who Only Ever Wore Khakis, 14

Wife Beaters, Flip Flops, and Yankee Fitteds Portrait of My Very Jealous Husband 15

III.

Me Too? 19

The Boys in Blue 20

Neighborhood legend 21

Portrait of a Father: 2014. 22

Party Hats 23

IV.

Fisherman's Cap 27

At a Seaside Restaurant in Maine 28

Soles with holes 29

Hospital Gown 30

Adult Diapers 31

V.

Poem for autumn 35

The hawk is out 36

Living Alone in Nebraska 37

Ebony 38

VI.

The Nike Song Circa'91 41

The Day I Left the Church 42

On robes 43

The Professor Takes His Lunch 44

Biological Father at College Graduation, 2001 45

VII.

Portrait of a Medicine Man 49

House Guest Who Stole My Wedding Ring 50

Portrait of pink, or blush 51

The Butchers Apron: A Portrait of Whole Foods, or, 52

Harlem Gentrification

Portrait of Debra 53

VIII.

The Ad Agency Workers 57

The Guy in the Office Next to Mine 58

Poem for my PhD Professor 59

Cutting One's Lovers Hair 60

Armchair 61

IX.

Walgreen's Run 65

Winter windows 66

Dancing with him, or my baby's back muscles 67

Balls Smell 68

Tittyfucking after the miscarriage 69

Notes and Acknowledgments 71