during this time, i have learned the ceiling is discolored
birds are raucous morning creatures
the neighbors like to yell FUCK more than they actually fuck
somewhere nearby there is a screeching monkey
out the window is a gray Oakland
the city of my displacement
the daily centering of me in such geography
it has caused age to surface on my skin
and hair
it is beautiful
inescapable
or maybe i have resigned myself
given notice to who i was
THIS IS NOT WHO YOU WILL BE
it reads (“civil engineering part II”)
Stacy [Doris] is the one who instigated this book… she asked me to “write the obscene.” I was immediately put off by the idea. I had lofty ideas and wanted to be considered a “serious poet” and I didn’t think writing the obscene really fit into that plan. But I had to write something because she was my professor and I had to turn something in—so that’s where the “obscenity for the advancement of poetry” series came from. I believe the first poems in that series were written in 2005, but they are so current—it’s creepy. Then again, what’s political is often obscene so I shouldn’t be surprised. Anyway, 8 years later I came across them again and saw a way to finally do what Stacy had asked. I started with my body—my intestines and bowels and everything that makes me grossly human. Then I added what was expected of me—by others and myself—and it took off from there.