Raina Washington

from Five Objects Illustrating the Nature of Discovery

Daguerreotype
   

I. The image adds ten pounds?

D: Have you noticed that where there is no growth, it all dissolves to black mirror?

I: Your name contains the word war.

D: Distinct insects, yes.

I: One is fat with legs dangling. The other a torpedo, and not so into flowers.

D: Can honey crystallize into lattice imperfections?

I: Well, which would you rather be?

D. Sheets and sheets of fabric. Cotton diamonds, cotton fields with silk underneath.

I. The people are in focus, but the buildings are not.

D. I don’t wish to be misquoted.

I: I would be a bee.

D. Past the people, inside the house, the color begins. Through the window, an ultramarine room.

I. The children are not sure what to do with their hands, they clutch at the fabric.


Raina Washington is a graduating student at Hunter College. She lives in Brooklyn where she teaches a poetry workshop to fourth grade students. She was awarded the 2005 Audre Lorde Poetry Prize, and her work has appeared in the Olivetree Review. This Fall she will be an MFA student in Fiction at Brooklyn College.

 

undergrad feature:
city university of new york (cuny)

- Jon Christensen

- Caroline Ashby

- Raina Washington

- Erinn Moran

- Marianne Choi

- Sarah Roberts