Prac Crit

Kiki Petrosino

Kiki Petrosino is the author of two books of poetry, Hymn for the Black Terrific (2013) and Fort Red Border (2009), both from Sarabande Books. She is founder and co-editor of Transom, and an Associate Professor of English at the University of Louisville. Her third book, Witch Wife, is forthcoming from Sarabande Books in 2017.

Scarlet by Kiki Petrosino

/ / / Long ago, I was a figlia with a fever. / Little filly, foaled in my dark star-bed / where I thought I’d die pretty soon. / / Lying there, my fists held candy eggs / of logic, molten math. My pink death already / long ago. I was a figlia with a fever / / & I doubled in the neck...

‘Scarlet’ – Deep note by Kiki Petrosino

1 When I was about seven, I had a recurrent case of scarlet fever. It’s a bacterial infection that used to be fatal in the young, especially during the Victorian era (Charles Darwin lost two children to the disease). My fever came three times for me, a fact that I think the recursiveness of the vill...

Scarlet by Kiki Petrosino

/ / / Long ago, I was a figlia with a fever.1 / Little filly, foaled in my dark star-bed2 / where I thought I’d die pretty soon. / / Lying there, my fists held candy eggs / of logic, molten math. My pink death already3 / long ago. I was a figlia with a fever / / & I doubled in the n...