Here I Throw Down My Heart

Contents

Preface. Dancing in the Flaming World: A View of Alma Thomas vii I Juju Crossings 3 Making Ends Meet 7 Nostalgia 9 Mannequin 12 The Silver Screen 14 The Memory of Skin 16 Is This Our Body? 18 Pedestrians Crossing 20 The Theory of Flight 22 Ghosts of My Familiars 24 The Bone Thief 25 Cataracts 27 Crossing the Rubicon at Seventy 28 Where Forgotten Things Belong 29 II Collateral Damage 33 Military Woman: Evolution 34 Recruited 36 Humvee 38 First Blood 39 Altar Candles 40 Film Noir 41 Roadkill 43 Contents What Stays Here 45 R&R 48 A Gender More Deadly 50 Second Tour 51 Furlough 52 The Homefront 53 What News 54 III On with the Dance 59 Aubade 61 Falling in Love with the Sword Swallower 62 Vows 63 Counting Sheep 64 The Sojourner’s Diary 65 After the Waters 66 Basin Street 68 Ice Golf on the Arctic Circle 70 Crossing Oceans 71 Hunger 73 IV Going There 79 American Rude 80 Playing the Dozens 82 Good Juju / Bad Juju 84 Conceit 86 Arrivals 88 Liquid Borders 89 Walmart with Snakes 90 Albedo 91 Non-Combatant 93 The Art of War 94 Diseases of the Earth 96 Acknowledgments 101 ...