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Charlie Smith was born in Georgia and served in the Peace Corps before graduating from Duke University and the University of Iowa. His eight poetry collections include Red Roads, selected for the National Poetry Series and Great Lakes New Poets Award; Word Comix , and Headlong (Norton, 2013). Smith has also published seven novels, among them Cheap Ticket to Heaven, Chimney Rock, and Three Delays (Harper Perennial, 2010), as well as a collection of novellas, Crystal River. Two new novels, Men in Miami Hotels and Ginny Gall, will be published by Harper Perennial.



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The River

by Charlie Smith
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I was supposed to fly down to see my brother,
but I got sidetracked by some girls
and was two days late. The place was shut up
and my brother was gone to the river to be
with the mangroves & the knobby-headed egrets.

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  • A sad, beautiful poem that feels like a dream. Love, even...
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