Erin Murphy

---

Page 1 | 2 | 3

Taxonomy of Wounds

The knife slice and cat bite that required
tetanus shots. The cocktail of makeup
and powder your mother used to cover
black eyes. All the men you ever wanted
to kill. The skate blade gash that opened
your knee like a mouth as if it had
secrets to spill.

Erin Murphy's eighth book of poems, Human Resources, is forthcoming from Salmon Poetry of Ireland. Her work has appeared in such journals as The Georgia Review, Field, Southern Humanities Review, Glass, and Women's Studies Quarterly. Her awards include The Normal School Poetry Prize, the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize, and a Best of the Net award. She is editor of three anthologies from the University of Nebraska Press and SUNY Press and serves as Poetry Editor of The Summerset Review. She is Professor of English at Penn State Altoona. Website: www.erin-murphy.com.