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.

• 1 
• Auckland p. 5
• Antwerp p. 9
• Durban, South Africa - Some Notations of Value p. 11
• Hanging in Egypt with Breyten Breytenbach p. 13
• Poem p. 16
• Letter to the Editor p. 18
• A Way to Turn This to Light p. 21
• Refugees p. 23
• Harare p. 24
• Walcott p. 28
• 2 
• Buffalo Women p. 31
• 3 
• Hands Washing Water p. 53
• Fire p. 54
• Lacan p. 55
• The New Religion p. 56
• The Measure of Sorrow p. 57
• Aphasia p. 58
• The Old Artist Speaks to the Young Poet p. 59
• from There Are No Names For Red p. 60
• Coleman p. 62
• Low-down Dirty Blues p. 63
• Foucault's Funk p. 64
• Morning Yet p. 65
• Ode to a Rag p. 66
• Letter to the President p. 67
• Say Something about Child's Play p. 68
• Ouija Board p. 69
• War Widow p. 70
• Skin p. 71
• Muir Woods p. 72
• A Warrior's Pride p. 73
• Howl p. 75
• Secrets p. 76
• The Cleft in the Infinite p. 77
• How We Come to Name p. 78
• Unfinished Symphony p. 79
• Notes p. 81
• About the Author p. 83