Hands Washing Water

"Chris Abani's poetry resonates with a devastating beauty which cuts through to the heart of human strength."--"Pride"""

"Hands Washing Water" is Chris Abani's fourth poetry collection--a mischievous book of displacement, exile, ancestry, and subversive humor. The central section, "Buffalo Women," is a Civil War correspondence between lovers that plays on our assumptions about war, gender, morality, and politics.

"Sweetest Henri, "
"I know we promised to be honest, "
"one to the other, but your recent missive, "
"though welcome as any epistle from you, "
"filled me with a dread that clung"
"like dampness to wet wood. I am terrified"
"for your immortal soul, dear sweet Henri."
"This mad war of Lincoln is infecting you"
"with a sickness too depraved to even address. . ."

Abani's writing is ruthless, at times traumatic, and consistently filled with surprising twists and turns.