$16.00 USD
Prelude to Bruise is a song from a tightrope, balancing ecstatic existence and the chaos that always threatens to engulf a life on the margins. How do we reckon our past without being ravaged by it? How do we use people, and their bodies, to express ourselves? Danger is everywhere in these poems, but never overwhelms them; the poet is always an anchor on the other side. And his story carries us relentlessly along.
From "Sleeping Arrangement":
Take your hand out
from under my pillow.
And take your sheets with you.
Drag them under. Make pretend ghosts.
I can't have you rattling the bed springs
so keep still, keep quiet.
Mistake yourself for shadows.
Learn the lullabies of lint.
About the Author:
Saeed Jones is the author of the chapbook When the Only Light is Fire (2011, Sibling Rivalry Press). His work has appeared in Best Gay Stories 2013, Guernica, Ebony Magazine, The Rumpus, Hayden's Ferry Review and West Branch among other publications. Jones received his MFA in Creative Writing at Rutgers University Newark and is the recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem and Queer/Arts/Mentors. He works as the editor of BuzzfeedLGBT and lives in Harlem.
Author: Saeed Jones
