Broke On Ice
by Tony Medina

Poetry. African American Studies. BROKE ON ICE is a nonlinear narrative in verse in the voice of a homeless everyman named Broke, talking about his existence and life experiences through conversational poems, tall tales, anecdotes, episodes, and jokes, much like that of Langston Hughes’s Simple. Broke is also in the tradition of Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp, as well as Nicanor Parra’s Christ of Elqui, Zbigniew Herbert’s Mr. Cogito and Richard Pryor’s Mudbone, where these everyman personas critique modern society through satire, humor, irony and pathos. As poet Kelly Norman Ellis puts it, "Broke is an unflinching well of humanity who reminds us of the wicked wink inside the blues."