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The University of Massachusetts Press’ Juniper Prize for poetry, a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry, an Emmy Award from the American Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and Poet Laureate of the State of Maryland.

Her other teaching experiences have included appointments as Elliston Poet at the University of Cincinnati, Jenny Moore Visiting Lecturer in Creative Writing at George Washington University, and Woodrow Wilson Scholar at Fisk University, Trinity College and other universities. She currently teaches at the University of California at Santa Cruz

6 it is late
it is late
in white america.

chorus: lucille
something is growing in the strong man.
it is blooming, they say, but not a flower.
he has planted so much in me. so much.
i am not willing, gardener, to give you up to this.
▪

her name is the name i would have given
the daughter i would have liked to have had.

my hair is pain.
my mouth is a cave of cries.
my room is filled with white coats
shaped like God.
they are moving their fingers along
their stethoscopes.
they are testing their chemical faith.
chemicals chemicals oh mother mary
where is your living child?
▪

repeat it, she will
follow you, she will
do whatever you say.
▪

here is the magic word:
cancer.
cancer.
repeat it, she will
become her own ghost.

the death of joanne c.
11/30/82
aged 21

the death of thelma sayles
2/13/59
age 44