Nicole Cooley and Julia Kasdorf

            During the poetry reading, Nicole Cooley and Julia Kasdorf would alternate reading different poems from the book they chose to share. Cooley explained how she would give her first drafts of poetry to Kasdorf to edit. She described how awful her originals were and how Kasdorf is credited for making them good enough to publish. They seem to have a very close relationship and said that they became partners before either of them had books. A large amount of the poems that Cooley read were about hurricane Katrina and how it affected New Orleans. She also read a poem about how the levees in New Orleans were used to save the white neighborhoods by having the water flow into the black neighborhoods. This was new information to her and was moved by not knowing about this earlier while she was living in Louisiana. She was also affected by hurricane Katrina because her parents lived in New Orleans during the time and she did not hear from them for days so this affected her emotionally. The details in this poem were very vivid in regards to the emotions she was feeling during the time, what her siblings told her, when she finally got in contact with her parents, and also the damage caused by the hurricane. My favorite poem that she read was about these notes posted on the building of this one local restaurant. Based off of the note, as the listener, I was able to tell that this restaurant meant a lot to the people located in the community. Cooley said that there were hundreds of notes and she spent an hour in front of the restaurant writing them down. The poems Kasdorf read I found hard to follow. There was one about a kickboxing class and another I think that was about her childhood, but I was not exactly sure. With the poems that she read, I felt that it would be more effective if I read them myself so that I can analyze them and have a better understanding. Other than some slight confusion during the reading, I enjoyed listening to their poetry.

Playing God

Katherine used to be beautiful. She once had flowing black hair and green eyes that shined with life, but now her hair still dark is now dull and her green eyes always appear tired. She’s skinny, maybe too skinny, and her limbs just dangle about. Her meek hands wrap around the handles of her shopping bags. Her knuckles are white from gripping so tightly. She prefers to walk home rather than to drive since the grocery store is only a few blocks away from her house.

            On a typical day, Katherine would walk on the main road to get to the grocery store, but today there is construction being done so she decides to cut through a different street. She’s been this way once or twice, but doesn’t prefer it because she thinks it seems a little sketchy.

            Leaving the store, she makes her way with her bags through the parking lot and goes down a short street to get to the back road. The weight of the bags slows down her pace as she goes on. The road is empty of cars and the sidewalk is empty people. The only thing scenic about the back road is the expansive orange grove across the street. The few times that she took this road, she always admired the never ending forest of orange trees. The trees are dotted with oranges that are perfectly ripe for picking. She looks upon the grove as she walks by just thinking about how great those oranges probably are.

Walking pass and getting closer to home, her desire for the oranges keeps growing. “Taking one or two oranges wouldn’t be a crime,” she thinks to herself. She didn’t think of buying any when she was at the market nor did she have enough money to do so anyway. She glances to her left then to her right and crosses the streets with her long, boney legs guiding her. She goes to the closest tree to her and places her bags on the grass. She reaches up and tenderly grips an orange and forces it off of the tree. She takes the orange and stuffs it into one of her already filled bags. “I have room for a few more,” she thinks to herself again. Simple enough of a task, she picks about seven oranges and forces her bags to make room for them.

She was able to fit them all in, except for one. Even though the bag in her left hand is causing her enough strain and is just as heavy as the bad in her right hand, she forces her right hand to hold onto both of these bags. She takes the orange, puts it up to her face, and starts to peel it with her teeth. With half of the orange peeled, she takes a bit as she walks across the street. As her teeth sink into the orange, a faded black pick up truck is driving up the street. The more her teeth sink into the orange, the closer the truck gets. She successfully takes a bite. The truck smashes into her. The truck with only a dent on its grill smoothly rides along. Katherine is left there on the black gravel with her groceries and blood spread about.