Monster
You say monster. Scale your penthouses. Smash you on the lighthouse rocks. Sirening you from the backrows of a puppet sub-genre.
We say autonomous trailer park/ghetto/mermaid/unicorn/cyborg collectives.1
You say grossly erotic, electrocuted grave. Congenital and category.
We say we are lovingnewword. Havoc-ing in encyclopedia warehouses between “math” and “moon.” Subject-ing eggs
—Dawn Tefft
1And by trailer park, I mean a community of people forced to live in one part of town. And by ghetto, I mean a community of people forced to live in one part of the city. And by putting these terms next to each other, I mean an active solidarity between people forced to live on very little. I mean a recognition of the beauty inherent in all communities. I mean that I grew up on welfare and lived in the worst houses in town. I mean that I feel comfortable saying the words “trailer park,” but not “ghetto.” I mean I wish I knew another word, because I have heard other people who look like me use the word with such ugliness. I mean I would like to actively support my friends working to reclaim it as a word of beauty. I mean language is complicated and I don't have the rights to every usage, because my rights are limited by my experiences. I mean I would love to create new worlds and new words to describe them. I mean “We say autonomous trailer park/ghetto/mermaid/unicorn/cyborg collectives.”
bhanu havocs dawn's subject
a community of people forced to live in one part of town. The removal of a person,
between people forced to live on very little abruptly, from a set of conditions
I have heard other people who look like me their homes to be superior to your own with its backward-seeming margarines and vinegars on welfare
use the word were you born a cyborg into a house with such ugliness
my rights brutal monsters limited by my experiences
Please tell me my future. I see a body, outlined
against the barracks
This is a tongue she is holding in her hands,
separate from her mouth.
I could not stop her
from giving birth to herself if I tried.
bhanu havocs dawn's subject: a monster response arranged by Ching-In Chen from Dawn Tefft's poem and italicized text from Bhanu Kapil's Incubation: a Space for Monsters (Leon Works, 2006).
