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after Gwendolyn Brooks and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
we make ourselves dizzy on fumes & fruit cocktails think of plants
how they are visible to each other take pics of the best looks for the record
if there are flowers, flowers the flounce on a hem
we try everything on each body has its pose a dress that almost resembles a vine
pointy boot or platform shoe our arena of possibilities: the mall
between some image a blur
stretch turtleneck or ruched skirt the brave stockings in hell a radio playing our songs
we shrink into school, then expand: formal chrysanthemum
our hair as big as a neon sign
we anticipate a message (actually talking, on the phone) secret spill
how our jokes line up in permanent rotation the made up games
our treasury of gestures all the sparklings
we have everything but control like trees, we adhere to silence
then out the door skating at night on empty streets our looping paths
the rhinestone traces left behind we who were
Sources of quoted material in italics, in order of appearance:
Brooks, ‘Winnie’
Cha, ‘audience distant relative’
Brooks, ‘Young Afrikans’
Brooks, ‘ “Still Do I Keep My Look, My Identity...” ’
Cha, Dictée
Cha, Dictée
Brooks, ‘a song in the front yard’
Brooks, ‘The Third Sermon on The Warpland’
Brooks, ‘The Sundays of Satin-Legs Smith’
Brooks, ‘kitchenette building’
Cha, Secret Spill (film title)
Brooks, ‘The Life of Lincoln West’
Brooks, ‘The Life of Lincoln West’
Cha, Dictée
Brooks, ‘the rites for Cousin Vit’
Brooks, ‘The Blackstone Rangers’
Commissioned by the National Poetry Library and the Centre for New and International Writing at the University of Liverpool, for the ‘Poets in Vogue’ exhibition, 2023.
