Incorrect Merciful Impulses

Camille Rankine

A bold debut collection, Camille Rankine’s Incorrect Merciful Impulses reflects with perfect clarity the symptoms of and instructions for contemporary life, inquiring into history, politics, culture, identity, and mortality while always remaining attuned to wonder and curiosity.
 
World-wise and incisive, reverent and compassionate, Rankine confronts challenging questions with art that dares to inspire.

Paperback: $16.00 list price

Bookshop Amazon
Receive this book as a gift when you donate.

ISBN: 9781556594908

Format: Paperback

After the Fire, I Ask Myself

After the fire
I breathe standing up.
 
He was not a good man, but
every villain and hero loved
 
once—long-haired woman, white dress
billowing in the sea.
 
Love note penned
on the back of my hand:
 
Little girls prefer
pink, gentlemen.
 
Cowards
put their hands up.
 
I struck the match
on a bitter day.
 
Thick black drug
in a paper cup. Two cigarettes.
 
One for you.
One for you.
 
The sun really does
shine this way.
 
It’s too cold for
my fingers, my fingers
 
say:
We’ve had enough.
 
Your rose-apple face.
My coal-black eyes.
 
Ashes.
That’s why.

About the Author

Camille Rankine is the author of the chapbook Slow Dance with Trip Wire, selected by Cornelius Eady for the Poetry Society of America’s 2010 New York Chapbook Fellowship. Her poetry has appeared in Boston Review, The New York Times, A Public Space, Tin House, and elsewhere. A recipient of a “Discovery”/Boston Review poetry prize, as well as fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the MacDowell Colony, she teaches creative writing at The …

Read more