Chamber After Chamber

Chamber after Chamber is about what fractures, fixes, and refills the hearts of two girls as they grow into women. A loose narrative in three sections, the poems follow a speaker and her cousin through their hardscrabble, backwoods childhood to their separation--both physical and emotional--as adults. From the make-believe apocalypses and cut-and-paste valentines of elementary school to the stadium-seating classrooms and multiplexes of southern China, our speaker tries to leave the shame and dysfunction of her family behind. In China, she begins to see America--and herself--clearly for the first time, and in doing so discovers that both her cousin and her country are inextricably woven into [her body] part that never sleeps the blood and chambered meat that's like a rock squeezed in a fist rapping its knuckles on the sweet door of the body.

• | Author: Saara Myrene Raappana
• | Publisher: Juniper Prize for Poetry
• | Publication Date: Apr 01, 2024
• | Number of Pages: NA pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1625347782
• | ISBN-13: 9781625347787