Angie Estes strategy of Latin, French, and English quotes or translations distances the reader. Her book first appears difficult, but once the reader finds a comfort level with the language, the poetry isn't as difficult to enter. The foreign languages create a European and Romantic context for the work. In this sense, the nature of the quotes used, always in italics, sincerely speak to the subject matter and work as a whole. In a book about love, why not use romance languages. The quotes, along with epigraphs and sources quoted, create a learned atmosphere. Estes book marginalized you if you can't keep up with the discourse. Her English is already loaded, so with the addition of multiple texts and languages, we may struggle to keep up.
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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