Most of Matejka’s works contain a formulaic balance between pointed, veiled sentences that I presume are based in personal history and crafted turns of language. “Do The Right Thing,” for example, summarizes a meeting with director Spike Lee, but contains lines such as “he edited me like my name/ was Pino” and “the missed free throw feeling in my chest.” Spike Lee didn’t literally edit the speaker as if he were a character in Do The Right Thing, but this language shows us how the speaker felt. Matejka likely chose this route, as opposed to saying “he changed the way I felt.” With the “free throw” line, once again, Matejka introduces an emotion often overlooked for poetry, more likely found on a Sportscenter recap. The idea of a missed free throw feeling in ones chest tells us how the speaker feels, but since a basketball game didn’t literally take place, Matejka shows us how the speaker felt.
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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