Backward as well as forward sluing

Abstract

Backward as well as forward sluing Erin Coughlin Hollowell (bio) I’ve been saving little boxes, empty cans, jars that held olives or mustard, envelopes, broken flower pots and especially beautiful bottles that were dug out of the dump. Soon I’ll begin putting things by: the goose that liked to bite your ankles, Aunt Hilda’s Parliament cigarettes, the crinkling brown wrappers from a Whitman’s Sampler, a forty-year-old lock of my hair tied with red ribbon, the way you say I love you, too when you aren’t sure who I am, the letters that Dad sent you during World War II, porcelain angels, and pictures of us squinting into sunlight or leaning on huge old cars in empty parking lots. I’ll tuck little pieces of years deep in the drawer where I keep my socks, just so when I am alone [End Page 96] at the table, I can crack open a bottle and smell the sweet of your cheek when you kissed me goodnight, the sheets clean and smooth, darkness still an hour away. [End Page 97] Erin Coughlin Hollowell Erin Coughlin Hollowell is a poet and writer who lives at the end of the road in Homer, Alaska. Her first collection, Pause, Traveler, was published by Boreal Books, an imprint of Red Hen Press. She has been awarded a Rasmuson Fellowship, the Connie Boochever Award, and a Rona Jaffe Scholarship to Bread Loaf. Hollowell was one of the inaugural recipients of the Alaska Literary Award in 2014. Copyright © 2015 University of Nebraska Press