{"product_id":"9780809329984","title":"Persons Unknown","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this stunning continuation to the poetry collection \u003ci\u003eA Murmuration of Starlings\u003c\/i\u003e, dedicated to those who lost their lives during the Civil Rights movement, Jake Adam York presents another set of searing portraits of these martyrs—men whose murders haunt America’s history. These elegiac and documentary poems seek justice and understanding for such sacrifices as Mack Charles Parker, lynched in Mississippi in 1959, his body disposed of in the waters of the Pearl River; Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, abducted into the depths of the Homochitto Forest, beaten, and drowned in the Mississippi by the Ku Klux Klan; and Medgar Evers, dedicated activist, whose assassination outside his home in 1963 sent shockwaves throughout the South. Drawing on photographs, articles, legal documents, and other cultural artifacts, York deftly weaves history and memory into a lyrical reckoning for these often-overlooked victims of the bitter struggle for Civil Rights.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Natural History of Mississippi\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA blade of rust from the ocean\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand from the air a rumor\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethat corrodes the earth in tongues,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003elichen, moss, magnolia,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003euntil each gossip’s true.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThings go this way,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eeach green repeating its fact\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eof sun and wind and rain,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eits dialect, its blade,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewhile beneath each leaf\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ea quiet cuts between the veins.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLaced, pale wings open\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eto learn the particular weather,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe place or part of speech\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethat will darken\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand give them a name.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSo each sugar furls\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eto burn and bitter\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eagainst whatever mouths\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003emight swallow,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eeach skin becomes\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe history of its harbor,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eanother word for \u003ci\u003ehere.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis hatch of bark and shade\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ehangs like a photograph\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eof all it covers, so perfect,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eso still, its edges\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eblur, then disappear.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Southern Illinois University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47030612852976,"sku":"9780809329984","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780809329984_p0.jpg?v=1763741968","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780809329984","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}