Cassandra de Alba’s Comments

“City that Care Forgot”
This is a true story about a Gulf Coast Volunteers for the Long Haul relief trip. For a while I felt that the coincidence was too literary to write about, that it felt like a contrivance. I was also wary of writing about the effects of Hurricane Katrina, of appropriating a tragedy that did not belong to me—hence the last stanza.

“Going Home for Christmas”
The fresh perspective you get on your hometown after living somewhere else for the first time is pretty jarring.

“Traje de novia”
I tend to bristle at the idea of “women’s poetry,” at “body image poems,” but I wanted to write about that dress, about my family history, and those themes became the driving force of this poem. At the risk of sounding ludicrously pretentious, the tercets were a way for me to mimic the constricting nature of that dress and of my inherited genetics.

“Leaving New Hampshire”
This is almost a companion piece to “Going Home for Christmas.” It also exists thanks to my terrible habit of writing down observations while driving.

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