In parts of the Jim Crow South, institutions for delinquent girls were integrated.
by Angela Apte
The new girl, songless wears your smockbreaks dirt, cuts roots red soil dusting dark ankles catching sweat. Under tinny sky, Who picks your nits Matron says, You are coming back! The master’s wife has complained: Too many dishes broken Don’t worry. The baby will fit in the potato basket.
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Angela Apte received an MFA in Poetry from Virginia Commonwealth University and is the 2012 winner of the Academy of American Poets’ Catherine and Joan Byrne Poetry Prize. She currently lives and teaches in Houston, Texas.