Amateur Fighter
by Natasha Trethewey
‘Amateur Fighter’ is a poem about a speaker thinking of her father, a boxer. His painful journey inside and outside the ring is portrayed through this piece.
Enlightenment
by Natasha Trethewey
‘Enlightenment’ by Natasha Trethewey is a powerful poem about race and racism. The poet depicts the ways in which history can be interpreted.
Flounder
by Natasha Trethewey
‘Flounder’ by Natasha Trethewey uses a flounder as a metaphor to convey a child’s struggle with her mixed-race identity.
Hot Combs
by Natasha Trethewey
‘Hot Combs’ by Natasha Trethewey is an emotional poem about the past. It includes images of a speaker’s mother and how she looked as she fixed her hair.
Halfway through an afternoon
of coca cola bottles sweating rings
on veneered tabletops and the steel drone
of window fans above the silence
Incident
by Natasha Trethewey
‘Incident’ was published in the former United States Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey’s 2006 collection “Native Guard”. This poem features one of the African-American speaker’s reactions after watching the cross-burning by Ku Klux Klan members.
White Lies
by Natasha Trethewey
‘White Lies’ by Natasha Trethewey is a poetic exploration of racial identity in the American South through three lies a girl tells about being white.
