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DANGEROUS GOODS
ALSO BY SEAN HILL
Blood Ties & Brown Liquor
© 2013, Text by Sean Hill
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher: Milkweed Editions, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Suite 300, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415.
(800) 520-6455
Published 2013 by Milkweed Editions
Cover design by Charles Rue Woods
Cover artwork composed from images: canoe by MShep2, starlings by Rene Mansi, and map by Roberto A. Sanchez. All images from Istockphoto.com.
Author photo by Bart Nagel
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First Edition
Milkweed Editions, an independent nonprofit publisher, gratefully acknowledges sustaining support from the Bush Foundation; the Patrick and Aimee Butler Foundation; the Dougherty Family Foundation; the Driscoll Foundation; the Jerome Foundation; the Lindquist & Vennum Foundation; the McKnight Foundation; the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund, and a grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation Minnesota; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Target Foundation; and other generous contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. For a full listing of Milkweed Editions supporters, please visit www.milkweed.org.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hill, Sean, 1976-
[Poems. Selections]
Dangerous Goods : poems / Sean Hill. — First edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-57131-895-4 (e-book)
I. Title.
PS3608.I43775A6 2013
811'.6—dc23
2013024301
Milkweed Editions is committed to ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book production practices with this principle, and to reduce the impact of our operations in the environment. We are a member of the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the world’s endangered forests and conserve natural resources. Dangerous Goods was printed on acid-free 100% postconsumer-waste paper by Friesens Corporation.
FOR LAUREN
CONTENTS
Distance Grows in the Bones
Bahamas Voyage: Meditations on Blacks on Boats
Voices in St. Paul’s Cathedral
Postcard to My Third Crush Today
Postcard to Regret
Dangerous Goods
Postcard to Listlessness
Above It All
From the Best Authorities
AFRICA from the best AUTHORITIES
Schieffelin Bros. Exports & Imports
What Can Come to Pass
A Freedman Speaks of His Fellow, 1872
Jail Yard
Spring 1986
Seven Pastorals at Sixteen
November 16, 1872
Family
In My Father’s House
Visiting the Carriage House
In Houston
On Simple Machines
Lack
Etymology in a Subway in Houston
Gannoway Returns, 1874
Postcard to Nostalgia
Bemidji Blues
Bemidji in Spring
Penumbra
Postcard to the Bottoms of My Shoes
June 1920
Aurora Borealis
Postcard with Blood Stain
We Live to Learn to Love: A Story
Postcard from Reconciliation
Dearest,
Postcard with Blood Stain Received
