Florida Doll Sonnet by Denise Duhamel and Maureen Seaton

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend June 4, 2015   Florida Doll Sonnet   Denise Duhamel and Maureen Seaton

I love Fresh Market but always feel underdressed squeezing overpriced limes. Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Fiorucci, and all the ancient East Coast girls with their scarecrow limbs and Joker grins. Their silver fox husbands, rosy from tanning beds, steady their ladies who shuffle along in Miu Miu’s (not muumuus) and make me hide behind towers of handmade soaps and white pistachios. Who  knew I’d still feel like the high school fat girl some thirty-odd years later? My Birkenstocks and my propensity for fig newtons? Still, whenever I’m face to face with a face that is no more real than a doll’s, I try to love my crinkles, my saggy chin skin. My body organic, with no preservatives.            Copyright © 2015 by Denise Duhamel and Maureen Seaton. Used with permission of the authors. About This Poem   “We wrote ‘Florida Doll Sonnet’ by email, two lines at a time, as part of a new collaborative series on our fascinating adopted home of South Florida. Miami ranks number three in the nation for cosmetic surgery. There is one plastic surgeon for every 10,000 people. We’re not sure how many patients one surgeon can have, but sometimes it feels like each treats 9,998 people and we are the only two without face-lifts.” —Denise Duhamel and Maureen Seaton   Denise Duhamel and Maureen Seaton have been collaborating for over twenty-five years and are the authors of Caprice: Collaborations, Collected, Uncollected, and New (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2015). Duhamel teaches at Florida International University in Miami and Seaton teaches at the University of Miami in Coral Gables.   Photo credit: Amira Hadla Most Recent Book by Duhamel and Seaton   Exquisite Politics (Tia Chucha Press, 1997) "The Philosopher in Florida" by C. Dale Young "In a Legendary Light" by Regie Cabico "Couture" by Mark Doty Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038