Debra Bruce
Debra Bruce’s latest book of poetry, Survivors’ Picnic, was published in 2012 by Word Press. She is the author of three previous collections, Pure Daughter and Sudden Hunger, both from the University of Arkansas Press, and What Wind Will Do, from Miami University Press. Her work has been published widely in journals, including The Atlantic, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, Virginia Quarterly Review, and others.
CPC Readings
Wednesday, April 29, 1998
with Annie Finch, John Frederick Nims, Paulette Roeske, and Cin Salach
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Ballroom
Poetry by Debra Bruce
he smells like leather and mint and the El that shot
him through the city. Now he slips
his headstrap off, his black patch. But not
for them–the ones who heaved at him and swung
their taunt: Let’s see what’s under there.
Sometimes her tongue is numb
all morning, she says, but
she doesn’t say when
to go back, maybe at the first
crackle of bone as you bend
for the baby’s dropped spoon.