The title of ""Blue-Tail Fly"" comes from an antebellum song commonly known as ""Jimmy Crack Corn."" The blue-tail fly is a supposedly insignificant creature that bites the horse that bucks and kills the master. In this collection, poet Vievee Francis gives voice to ""outsiders"" - from soldiers and common folk to leading political figures - who play the role of the blue-tail fly in the period of American history between the Mexican American War and the Civil War. Through a diverse range of styles, characters, and emotions, Francis's poems consider the demands of war, protest and resistance to it, and the cross-cultural exchanges of wartime. More than a narrowly themed text, ""Blue-Tail Fly"" is a book of balances, weighing the give-and-take of people and cultures in the arena of war. For lovers of poetry and those interested in American history, ""Blue-Tail Fly"" will illustrate the complexities of the American past and future.