Poet Jericho Brown, an assistant professor at Emory University and author of the American Book Award-winning “Please,” will give a lecture at 6 p.m. tonight (Feb. 6, the 13th and previously published) at Pulaski Technical College’s R.J. Wills Lecture Hall.
Brown’s poetry has also been published in literary magazines and journals, including the Oxford American, Ploughshares and the American Poetry review. His talk is part of the Big Rock Reading Series at Pulaski Tech.
A sample poem, from his book “Please”:
LION 6
I wish you tamed. I wish what you fear—
A night alone in the forest.
A father who leaves you there. I wish you
Were ten years old again. And in love
With Marvin Gaye. I wish you saw his daddy
Shoot him. I wish you asthma. An attack
In the field. A lump in your chest. A doctor
Who won’t touch it. I wish you’d live forever
Afraid of dying. See the circus and be content.
Animals crawling like infants for the men
Who made them. I wish you would
Sniff a man. I wish his whip
Sharper than fangs. I wish you could know
How bite-less I feel, the mouth
I don’t close, his head in my throat.