TROPHIC CASCADE
Wesleyan Poetry
TROPHIC CASCADE
Camille T. Dungy
Wesleyan University Press | Middletown, Connecticut
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown CT 06459
© 2017 Camille T. Dungy
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Designed by Mindy Basinger Hill
Typeset in Adobe Caslon Pro
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Dungy, Camille T., 1972– author.
Title: Trophic cascade / Camille T. Dungy.
Description: Middletown, Connecticut : Wesleyan University Press, [2017] |
Series: Wesleyan poetry
Identifiers: LCCN 2016042846 (print) | LCCN 2016051445 (ebook) | ISBN 9780819577191 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780819577207 (ebook)
Classification: LCC PS3604.U538 A6 2017 (print) | LCC PS3604.U538 (ebook) | DDC 811/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016042846
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Cover illustration: Photograph by Sean Hill
Contents
Before the fetus proves viable, a stroll creekside in the High Sierra 7
“still in a state of uncreation” 8
Ars Poetica: Mercator Projection 9
Frequently Asked Questions: #1 19
Frequently Asked Questions: #2 20
Ars Poetica after William Carlos Williams 21
Frequently Asked Questions: #3 22
Frequently Asked Questions: #4 29
Frequently Asked Questions: #5 30
Notes on what is always with us 33
There are these moments of permission 37
Because it looked hotter that way 38
From the First, the Body Was Dirt 41
Frequently Asked Questions: #6 46
One to Watch, and One to Pray 48
Frequently Asked Questions: #7 50
Frequently Asked Questions: #8 53
Assignment #3: Write About Your Favorite Book 57
Frequently Asked Questions: #9 59
Where bushes periodically burn, children fear other children: girls 61