Sesshu Foster grew up in City Terrace, California, and received an MFA from the University of Iowa. He taught English for a number of years at a Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, junior high school and now teaches at Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet. His books include City Terrace Field Manuel (1996) and World Ball Notebook (2008), from which these prose poems are taken. In addition to teaching and writing his own poetry, he has coedited a collection of multicultural urban poetry, Invocation L.A. (1989).