The Red Rat Snake

The Red Rat Snake

All action is active

Including the shrinking

Which creates the void that hate fills

A comfortable group

Scent of honeysuckle

Silver bullets kissed by open lips

Hiss and pop and sweat of beer

Conversation

Suddenly turns toward difference

Like the time

The red rat snake

Fell from the pine

The shrinking back

Gave it room to strike.

* * * * *

Colors

There are colors that matter.
For instance:
The range of sapphire in this shallow sea,
The roiling grey of the sky,
The simple uncolored assertion of horizon,
The tans and pinks of flashing shells.
So many, that under other circumstances,
Enough to purchase a continent,
Or, worn artfully in young braids,
Enough to break the heart of a king.
There are so many and each one
Reaches back through its silent testimony.
A garland of sea grass twists around my ankle
And I add green and amber to the list.

A man and wife from Sierra Leone
Converse with a pair of local drunks
Whose threat waits behind the cages of their smiles.
“At least your skin doesn’t burn,” one says,
Touching the man’s ebony arm.
And the man from Africa smiles back,
Although the wife refuses her eyes.
“See you upstairs,” the other says,
Waving his pale finger at the sky.

posted 14 November 2005

Dr. Caroline Maun

Assistant Professor / Interdisciplinary Studies / Wayne State University

5700 Cass Ave. / Detroit, MI 48202 / 313-577-6580

email: caroline.maun@wayne.edu

EDUCATION

· Ph. D. in English, 1998. University of Tennessee, Knoxville. <http://www.utk.edu>

· M.A. in English, 1992. North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina. <http://www.ncsu.edu>

· B.A. in English with high honors, 1990.Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida.

EDUCATIONAL CERTIFICATION

· PIER Certificate in African Studies, Yale University, 2001.

TEACHING AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan

Assistant Professor of Literacy and Critical Thought, 8/04 to present. Teaching interdisciplinary courses in writing and oral communication.

Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland

· Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Composition, 7/99 to 5/04. http://jewel.morgan.edu/~english/english.htm> Teaching Freshman Composition sections face-to-face and online. Co-Coordinator of the Freshman English Program. Member of the Honors Program faculty (three-year appointment from 2002-2005).

· Director, English Resource Writing Center, 11/98 to 5/04. http://jewel.morgan.edu/~english/english.htm> Supervising student employees, managing grant monies, faculty liaison with computer support services.

· HUD-EDI Special Projects Grant Co-Recipient, with Dr. Wendell Jackson, 11/98 to 9/99 (period of grant). Funds in excess of $79,000 earmarked to improve the English Resource Writing Center at Morgan State University: designing lab, training tutors, instructional technologist, and curriculum design. Internal Morgan State University grant of $50,000 was also implemented for equipment.

· Lecturer, 8/98 to 5/99. Teaching Freshman Studies English composition.

posted 13 June 2006