Karintha
Karintha is the star of a blended genre work that is part verse and part prose sketch. The very first line of the prose section states “Men had always wanted her, this Karintha, even as a child” and the poem itself seem to suggest quite strongly why. Almost half the lines of short poem contains the words “Her skin is like dusk.” Her skin is Karintha’s identifying feature; or, rather, the color of her skin.
The Reaper
The reaper is the first person narrator of the poem “Harvest Song.” His defining characteristic as judged by the most commonly repeated word is tragically in a way far different from that of Karintha: he hungers. His narrative describes his toil in the fields, his aching muscles, his dry throat and his incapacity to hear because of the dust which coats his ears. Above all else, however, is his cry of hunger. But for what? He never fully delineates exactly what he hungers for.
The Georgia Woman
The poem titled “A Portrait of Georgia” is all imagery. The woman whose portrait is being painted with words is easy enough to picture: her hair is a chestnut brown and braided like rope sitting atop a slim body. It is the other imagery, however, that lingers; “scars,” “blisters” and “black flesh after flame.”
Bootleggers
What do we learn about the bootleggers in the verse/prose hybrid “Seventh Avenue” other than how they make their living? They wear silk shirts, they drive big Cadillacs and they got money to burn. What else is there to know?
The Sawmill Workers
“Georgia Dusk” begins with the arrival of nightfall for that is when life begins for the workers in the sawmill. We follow them from the moment the whistle blows to call it a day through the music their feet make stomping through the swampy land on the way home which provides accompaniment to the glorious sound of their voices rising in the night to sing songs that connect them back to the glorious heritage of bloodlines and a lost world of kings, priests and witch doctors.
