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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
HYBRIDS OF WAR: A MORALITY POEM: 2. CAMBODIA, by KAREN SWENSON Poet's Biography
First Line: Before the rats came
Last Line: For a face to match her mirrors'.
Subject(s): Abandonment; Cambodia; Children; Desertion; Childhood
First Line: Before the rats came
Last Line: For a face to match her mirrors'.
Subject(s): Abandonment; Cambodia; Children; Desertion; Childhood
Before the rats came,
following the wavering fishline
of her newborn cry,
they found her among pearly slime
of gutted mussel shells,
fish rot, jackfruit rind,
and scabbed plastic in the harbor dump.
Sixteen and solemn,
walled in her street stand's ink perfume
by the gloss of fashionable
faces, as well as Time and Fortune,
she waits behind the gray
rain-drape of the monsoon
for a face to match her mirrors'.
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COME TO THE STONE ... by RANDALL JARRELL
THE LOST WORLD by RANDALL JARRELL
A SICK CHILD by RANDALL JARRELL
CONTINENT'S END by ROBINSON JEFFERS
ON THE DEATH OF FRIENDS IN CHILDHOOD by DONALD JUSTICE
THE POET AT SEVEN by DONALD JUSTICE