Willie Perdomo is the author of Where a Nickel Costs a Dime (1996), a finalist for the Poetry Society of America Norma Farber First Book Award; Smoking Lovely (2004), winner of the PEN/Open Book Award; The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon (2014), a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, and The Crazy Bunch (forthcoming 2019). He has received fellowships from Columbia University, Lucas Artists Program, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. His work has appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times Magazine, Poetry magazine, the Yale Review, The Common, Bomb, and African Voices. Perdomo currently teaches at Phillips Exeter Academy.
More By This Poet
That’s My Heart Right There
We used to say,
That’s my heart right there.
As if to say,
Don’t mess with her right there.
As if, don’t even play,
That’s a part of me right there.
In other words, okay okay,
That’s the start of me right there.
As if, come that day,
That’s...