flâneur

Sentences | The Poetry Foundation

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Share My mother kept a chest of letters my father sent me from prison. She didn’t let me see them until I was old enough to read profanity. Every letter, written in all caps with blue ink blotting out every other word. He signed each letter: Love, Shy Boogie. That was the name he claimed he got from the Bronx, known back then as the Boogie Down, where he bought the crack he’d sell back home. I don’t remember exactly how many years my father spent inside and I never bothered him with such questions. But I once asked my mother how long my father was in prison before he got out on parole. With an

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