In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • [white paper #15], and: [white paper #25], and: [white paper #33]
  • Martha Collins (bio)

[white paper #15]

and then when they couldn't affordit but they did afford it they hiredCecil to wash iron clean once a weekmy mother picked her up and took [End Page 147] her back to the colored section of townand once she had my mother to lunchwith her friends and sometimes theyprayed together including the daybefore my wedding for which she servedthe reception although she also cameto the service we all loved her lovedher wisdom I loved her beautiful crownof braids who knows what she felt whatdid I know about her ask her first name

[white paper #25]

My class in my all-white schoolhad just one Catholic, one Jew.In junior high, someone new:a Japanese-American girlborn like us a year beforePearl Harbor, before internment.Her family lived in our sectionof town, but were they therebefore, or had they fled the westbefore, or after, was she maybe oneof the hundred and ten thousand, didshe remember fences wire the warwe didn't remember, we didn'tknow much about her, who wasn't us— [End Page 148]

[white paper #33]

sale sheetson the line sailsin the sunsettowns where black

could not be seenafter dark therewere other townswhere yellow could

not later not Jew therewere signs letteredon wood scratchedon absence there

were numbers somethen none by bandecree threat attack:a price for living

in or staying pasta long day of workburning crosses whitesheets turned against

a dark sky the comingin of the kept outin the wind wavesof whites only within

city limits after darkwhites only underthe stones no skincovering [End Page 149]

Martha Collins

Martha Collins is the author of the book-length poem Blue Front (Graywolf) as well as four earlier collections of poems and two cotranslated volumes of Vietnamese poetry. Two collections are forthcoming: White Papers (Pittsburgh) and Day Unto Day (Milkweed).

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