Ever since reading Ai’s poem “Respect, 1967,” I’ve started to take poems written initially in a voice close to my own and write them a second time from a completely different perspective. The act of assuming another voice forces me away from the comfortable or triggering subject that allowed for my initial draft. Usually I write in a young, masculine voice, so when applicable, I rewrite drafts from an older and feminine perspective. I actually tried this in the poem “Beastiality,” one of my free responses for this week. I use this practice so that I don’t convince myself that my initial draft is amazing. Whenever I use this tactic, the second draft is almost always more provocative and more specific. Sometimes I blend the two drafts to give myself more language to work with, but I often just work with the new draft. In my poem “Black Paintings,” also written this week, I tried to combine the perspective of a father and son/fetus. I think both works are stronger because of this blend.
Language Mixology Half brother of the same halves, simulacra is fancy for “absent.” Like banging means “good” or off the chain means “good.” The same way off the hook forgets the phone, I’m forgetting the space between Oregon and North Carolizzay, daylight savings time and the addition of the “-izzay.” So silly that suffix, verbed blackface for black folks. ----------------------------------- Halfrican Brothers Keep Trying To Out Do Me Halfrican brothers keep trying to out do me, Blending their jaw line blackface. “Does that make you feel more black?” I’d say yes, if I knew that “black” Wasn’t the absence of white, The refusal to speak the King’s English. I’m remembering that black points, Though hard to come by, make all the difference Between grape drink and some opposite, Pants on the ground and some opposite, For non black folks.
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