William Fargason is the author of Love Song to the Demon-Possessed Pigs of Gadara (University of Iowa Press, April 2020), winner of the Iowa Poetry Award. His poetry has appeared in The Threepenny Review, New England Review, Barrow Street, Prairie Schooner, Rattle, The Cincinnati Review, Narrative, and elsewhere. He earned an MFA in poetry from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. in poetry from Florida State University. He lives with himself in Tallahassee, Florida, where he serves as the Assistant Poetry Editor at Split Lip.

Website: www.williamfargason.com
Twitter: @williamfargason
Instagram: @williamfargason
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ESSAY

Velvet

By WILLIAM FARGASON

Violence was a family tradition. My father, his father, his father’s father.