Ikins
Rachael Z. Ikins
Slide-Show in the Woods
Rachael Ikins was born and raised in Central New York's Fingerlakes region. Her love of writing poetry began in eighth grade when an inspired English teacher taught poetry. She made it possible for Rachael to publish her first poem.
In recent years Rachael has received several fellowships to Colgate's writer's conferences in Hamilton, NY and to the Downtown Writers Center Retreat through the YMCA writing program in Syracuse.
From the book:
Book Club
Thursday nights, when
my father went to Rotary club
mom and I ate TV dinners.
Sometimes Mexican, sometimes frozen pizza.
My tin fried chicken balancing on my knees
on a dented old tray. My brother and I
in front of television, his small heels
pushing his rocker slightly backward
to gaze at the screen as he chewed
Mrs. Swanson's chicken pot pie.
I never liked mixed peas and carrots.
I loved books. I loved TV dinner night specials,
The illicit huddle of my mother's shoulders at the kitchen table
as she hunched over the body with Hercule Poirot,
her ash-tail cigarette lying limp
in a lumpy ash tray my brother made for her in art class.
Me with my best pal Nancy Drew or wandering with Gandalf.
Dad's rule at our house, “No reading at the table.” Nor
elbows on the place mats, no open-mouthed chewing,
No conversation. Just Thursday's silent infidelities!
Slide-Show in the Woods
is a 32 page hand-stitched chapbook
$8.00
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