8th Annual Juried Reading
Finalist
Allison K. Deputy

Allison Deputy began writing poetry while an art student in her freshman year of college. She later changed her major to English with a Creative Writing emphasis in which she earned her B.A. in 1989 from California State University-San Bernardino. After moving to Illinois in the same year, she became involved in local writing groups, among them the Barrington Writers Workshop. Her work has previously appeared in The Pacific Review, RE Arts & Letters WEST, and NightWriters' Chapbook. Her most recent publication is a chapbook of poetry entitled, The Song of Enchantment. Outside of her writing interests, Allison works as a Tai Chi instructor and freelance artist/graphic designer. She is currently at work on a second chapbook called The Animal Queen.

Loose

But you see
there is this
thing,
this panting,
irrepressible
thing here
that will
not
be
caged.

The bars are
bent,
the latch
broken,
and all the
zoo keepers
have
gone
mad.

-- Allison K. Deputy

(C) 2002 The Poetry Center of Chicago
All Rights Revert Back to the Author Upon Publication.
No Portion of this poem may be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author.