Felon: Poems

A searing volume by a poet whose work conveys "the visceral effect that prison has on identity" (New York Times).

Felon tells the story of one man in fierce, dazzling poems- canvassing his wide range of emotions and experiences through homelessness, underemployment, love, drug abuse, domestic violence, fatherhood, and grace- and, in doing so, creates a travelogue for an imagined life. Reginald Dwayne Betts confronts the funk of post-incarceration existence and examines prison not as a static space, but as a force that enacts pressure throughout a person's life. Challenging the complexities of language, Betts animates what it means to be a "felon."

From "Night"

What she tells me: prison killed you my love, killed you so dead that you're not here now, you're never here, you're always.