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  • Deedywops
  • Natasha Trethewey (bio)

for Red

It was easy, then, to be king of your turf, the schoolyard and that patch of earth so smooth a blue-green marble—thumb-shot to stand back—could jump then spin like a planet. Everyday a ritual. You and the boys, Dairy Dan, Ree Ree, and Keety Boy lagging, talking shit—those borrowed rites of men you’d watch come Saturday at the barbershop, your ears honed to nuance, the dozens, a signifying phrase. How you’d strut and glide speaking your own language, the words an idiom for the game—playing marbles— deedywops. At ten you’d risk everything, your best aggies, crystals and cat-eyes loot in the circle. Stakes high as the rarest tar—the fat one you’d shoot with, blow on for luck. Your breath on that marble like your daddy’s on dice. Try for the first,kiss for the first, no come back. . . . Win or lose, you’d grab it up, run hard toward home—your hand full of dust, that blue-green world.

Selected works by Natasha Trethewey:

  • Accounting

  • Beginning

  • Calling His Children Home

  • Closing Time

  • Deedywops

  • Delta Sharecroppers, 1930

  • Expectant

  • History Lesson

  • Hot Comb

  • The House Down the Street

  • Saturday Drive

  • Secular

  • The Four Corners

  • Laying the Waves

  • An Interview with Natasha Trethewey

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Accounting

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Beginning

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Calling His Children Home

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Closing Time

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Delta Sharecroppers, 1930

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Expectant

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History Lesson

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Hot Comb

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The House Down the Street

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Saturday Drive

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Secular

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The Four Corners

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Laying the Waves

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An Interview with Natasha Trethewey

Natasha Trethewey

Natasha Trethewey, a member of the Dark Room Collective, is studying for the Ph.D. in English at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst), where she received the M.F.A. in creative writing in 1995. Her poetry has appeared in a variety of periodicals, including The Massachusetts Review, Seattle Review, Agni, The Southern Review, African American Review, The Gettysburg Review, and Callaloo.

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