Black Swim - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Nicholas Goodly earned their MFA from Columbia University. Their chapbook Black Swim won the 2017 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship. They were runner-up for the 2019 Cave Canem Poetry Prize and finalist for the 2020 Jake Adam York Prize. Goodly is writing editor of WUSSY. They live in Atlanta.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

My Black Spell

I breastfed one hunger after another

fear me I know the weight of playthings

the trampoline in the crawlspace our family

lost an older sister I am fearless

subtle phoenix-older child

there was a time I could bite

and crack into pink jawbreaker

fuck my mouth up into red ants

and explain the blood in my gums away

I've got muscle and am articulate

forged from the hurt parts of the ground

domestic life was child's play

breaking a bone at a time all fun and games

lives in my hands

I could do so much with miniatures

throw the piano in the kitchen attaboy

literally sexual stripped the boys

naked on the lawn I wanted to be

Michelangelo

with Barbie's arched feet or a brat

that could bend at the knees there is spit

in my circumstance they call me

unstone they call me unmusic

baby baby baby baby baby voodooed alive

seashell from familial waters

healthy and unimaginably magical

I'm watching your back

best I can baby brother

follow fish follow things that run to us

home licking with gumbo

I do not have words for all the things I desire

In the summer my hair was braided

I am your brother best I can

Lipsticks

OVAH no. 5

Not That Innocent Pink

Violet Chachki

See You Next Tuesday

Amanda Lepore's Revenge

Nude Descending a Staircase

They're All Gonna Laugh at You

I Will Always Love Blue

This Is My Hair

Electric Twiggy

Grey Gardens

Nene Is Very Rich Green

Spell on You

A Claire Huxtable Hue

The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia

Mutha! Has Arrived

Lips Don't Lie

Put a Little Yellow In My Bowl

Mrs. Bates

Priscilla: Green of the Desert

Bag Lady Blue

Metallic Cyndi Mayweather

Little Latin Boy in Drag

Touch All This Skin

Orange in the 212

Burnt Sunset Blvd

Iris Apfel Bloom

Naomi's Pout

C'est Si Bon

Meow

Fleetwood Matte

Divine Intervention

Good Witch, Bad Witch

Onyx First Lady

Proud Mary

The Banana-52's

Cleopatra

Rupacolypse Red

No Wire Hangers

Beat for the Gods

Barbarella Blue

Bette Davis Eyes

Opulence

Tangerine

Withdrawal in Drag

Dear pores, squeeze

every venom out of us.

The floorboards are unwell.

Leave no wounds.

Thinly shapeshifter,

come gaping crow

come broken city.

Practical scaffolding

temple taking beatings,

Scars, you are now

a giant woman.

Porous mary, you are longing.

Miss your drink. Lick

grenadine from your claws.

Penitent medusa, eat

a liver every day.

Chew our chances in half.

Change the form of your grit.

Safely trade your ice pick

for a Lisa Frank ice pick.

Become extraordinarily beautiful,

that is your ability. Old phoenix,

last call. Take up

as much room as you need.

Open yourself towards a thing

darker than a person.

Yellow head

soaking through the pillows,

you are made for dissection.

Steady my hand,

the one at your breast,

no blade or precious fire.

I don't want to know you anymore.

Evening Prayer

who bestowed upon me

this habit of wanting

music from a pen this addiction

to the gentleness of vowels

what are these notes

from people's heads

what is the point

of being the last one

to speak a beautiful language

I am a fraction

of what I could've been

what else can I contribute

I am outdone by children

with more to lose

a teenager instructing me

how it is to breathe

these kids are quick

they grab the hands

of their neighbors

pull each other

safely up for air

there is your enemy and son

your wife and brother

your prize and secret cross

golden fleece and weighted cast

heaven knows

I want this to be a poem

people reach for

how often have I told myself

I am not strong and time

keeps proving me wrong

when snow doesn't come

when I am not enough

let me do the right thing

and make a rope of words

let it begin with me even now

there is richness beyond belief

vulnerable warrior what risk is there

we who already die in so many places

this not even the worst of them

no one line is revolutionary

no one word ever is

I am grateful for not dying yet

I inhale what is in front of me

everything is changing

young hearts any love

I can describe for you

does not suffice but you

are worth my every effort

one day you will know love like this

and write it better than me

Voices and Organs Playing Loudly

I got a recipe for geranium eyes

I got the hook-up for kerosene hands

hallelujah! out of your bodies

get a hallelujah! straight out

of your body get into some brave

stretch-marked skin around the armpit

make it tiger skin get into a long pubic hair

at the crevice of the groin, eel-slick and erect

I got a craving for a knight and a bath

the days add up to why-me-lord birds

the evenings is a big why-be gorilla

I've been thinking in black-bone hours, Lord

I've been thinking of you in a trunk chest, Lord

I have an open mouth full of kingless crowns

I remember one specific whipping

and I remember forgiving hard

my whole father and my whole mother

I've worn beautiful and ordinary white dresses

we wore them together, Lord

forgive me very much

I have a...