Distributed for Autumn House Press
The Animal Indoors
Poems following a Black queer woman as she seeks refuge from an unsafe world.
Carly Inghram’s poems explore the day-to-day experiences of a Black queer woman who is ceaselessly bombarded with images of mass-consumerism, white supremacy, and sexism, and who is forced, often reluctantly, back indoors and away from this outside chaos. The poems in The Animal Indoors seek to understand and define the boundaries between our inside and outside lives, critiquing the homogenization and increasing insincerity of American culture and considering what safe spaces exist for Black women. The speaker in these poems seeks refuge, working to keep the interior safe until we can reckon with the world outside, until the speaker is able to “unleash the indoor news onto the unclean water elsewhere.”
The Animal Indoors won the 2020 CAAPP Book Prize, selected by Terrance Hayes.
Carly Inghram’s poems explore the day-to-day experiences of a Black queer woman who is ceaselessly bombarded with images of mass-consumerism, white supremacy, and sexism, and who is forced, often reluctantly, back indoors and away from this outside chaos. The poems in The Animal Indoors seek to understand and define the boundaries between our inside and outside lives, critiquing the homogenization and increasing insincerity of American culture and considering what safe spaces exist for Black women. The speaker in these poems seeks refuge, working to keep the interior safe until we can reckon with the world outside, until the speaker is able to “unleash the indoor news onto the unclean water elsewhere.”
The Animal Indoors won the 2020 CAAPP Book Prize, selected by Terrance Hayes.
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Table of Contents
ASSURED ENVIRONMENTS
DISAPPEARING INTO A FICTION
IRREVERSIBLY FUCKED IT UP
FOR A MOMENT EVERYTHING IS SMALL AND FAMILIAR
WHITE TIGERS
PRAISE POEM
WHAT SORT OF ANIMAL ARE YOU
THE DETRIMENTAL YEARS OF BECOMING A YOUNG WOMAN
NATURE ADAPTED TO LIVE ON THE ROCK
THIS WOMAN’S WORK
NOT EATING WAS MY SUPERPOWER
YOU’LL BE OK
OF NO SPECIFIC LIGHT
FOR THEY WILL INHERIT THE KINGDOM
TIMELESS OARS
SAVE YOU
JUST LAY THERE FLAT
LAST NIGHT I SAW A BOAT JUST AS IT WAS EXITING MY PURVIEW
FRANK OCEAN’S IVY
I FEEL DIRTY TODAY
EVERY GIRL WANTS A PINK SKY
ANIMAL PRINT
PRAISE POEM
WHAT DOES THE ARC YOU’RE INSIDE LOOK LIKE
THAT WHICH CARRIES BREATH OR THE LIVING WIND
RETWEET
AMERICA SELF-STORAGE
RIGHTEOUS VIOLENCE
A DARKNESS INVENTED BY THIRST
BAD CHARACTERS
COMPETITION: THE REVISIONIST SAND
THE REVOLUTION IS EDIBLE
RECOVER FROM WHATEVER
JUST HAVING FUN
THE INFINITELY EFFICIENT BODY
AND SO, WE GOT TO BE FOR EACH OTHER WHAT THE OTHER MISSED
TRIVIA
LISTENING
LIQUIFY
SOMETIMES U DO UR BEST WORK WHEN U GOT A GUN TO UR HEAD SAYS A MAN
PAINTING THE HERMIT CRABS
NEED TO BE NEEDED
HYPNOSIS
IF YOU GO INTO THE FOREST AND KILL AN ANIMAL, NOT ONLY THE ANIMAL KINGDOM AROUND BECOMES SHAKEN, BUT THE TREES ALSO
MY DESIRE IS RED THIS MORNING
RESTING PLACE AND OTHER SLOGANS
DISAPPEARING INTO A FICTION
IRREVERSIBLY FUCKED IT UP
FOR A MOMENT EVERYTHING IS SMALL AND FAMILIAR
WHITE TIGERS
PRAISE POEM
WHAT SORT OF ANIMAL ARE YOU
THE DETRIMENTAL YEARS OF BECOMING A YOUNG WOMAN
NATURE ADAPTED TO LIVE ON THE ROCK
THIS WOMAN’S WORK
NOT EATING WAS MY SUPERPOWER
YOU’LL BE OK
OF NO SPECIFIC LIGHT
FOR THEY WILL INHERIT THE KINGDOM
TIMELESS OARS
SAVE YOU
JUST LAY THERE FLAT
LAST NIGHT I SAW A BOAT JUST AS IT WAS EXITING MY PURVIEW
FRANK OCEAN’S IVY
I FEEL DIRTY TODAY
EVERY GIRL WANTS A PINK SKY
ANIMAL PRINT
PRAISE POEM
WHAT DOES THE ARC YOU’RE INSIDE LOOK LIKE
THAT WHICH CARRIES BREATH OR THE LIVING WIND
RETWEET
AMERICA SELF-STORAGE
RIGHTEOUS VIOLENCE
A DARKNESS INVENTED BY THIRST
BAD CHARACTERS
COMPETITION: THE REVISIONIST SAND
THE REVOLUTION IS EDIBLE
RECOVER FROM WHATEVER
JUST HAVING FUN
THE INFINITELY EFFICIENT BODY
AND SO, WE GOT TO BE FOR EACH OTHER WHAT THE OTHER MISSED
TRIVIA
LISTENING
LIQUIFY
SOMETIMES U DO UR BEST WORK WHEN U GOT A GUN TO UR HEAD SAYS A MAN
PAINTING THE HERMIT CRABS
NEED TO BE NEEDED
HYPNOSIS
IF YOU GO INTO THE FOREST AND KILL AN ANIMAL, NOT ONLY THE ANIMAL KINGDOM AROUND BECOMES SHAKEN, BUT THE TREES ALSO
MY DESIRE IS RED THIS MORNING
RESTING PLACE AND OTHER SLOGANS