Don’t Tell Them
In my deep lower belly, I asked my mother if my child was still there. Tiny sweat mosquitoes curling
each
shedding skin, taking the innocence I once lived. My pastor
father baptized my legs for free. Taking the crippling
wave from
my life. It has been like dribbling a
fire built on its own awakening. 28
days for red exposure to gender me.
She asked me yesterday, when will I
see my grandson walking with a
pacifier deep in the country kitchen?
Rosine Selemani
Rosine Selemani is a Congolese American writer. She received her BFA in Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska Omaha. She is featured in Isele Magazine & 3 Sisters Literary. Selemani explores her African identity through her Nebraska upbringing. Her work in progress is a poem, and short story titled “Nehi”.
Why this Knocked Taylor Out:
I love love love being caught off guard by the strangeness of a poem but still being able to be emotionally impacted. The sudden jarring line breaks are wonderful and that ending line is just..phew.
This fairly short poem manifesto encapsulates all of the phases of life seamlessly. Or maybe not, as the jarring line breaks shift us from stage to stage. I LOVEEE an abrupt line break. The pastor / father one stands out particularly.
There is also a fair bit of subtle sound work in here that I think should be noticed. The sibilance in the first few lines, the rhyming of gerunds. A lot of great stuff in there.
And that ending, the burden laid at the readers feet to bear. Lovely.
Interview:
Why did you choose Team Taylor for this poem?
I chose team Taylor for this poem because I felt you were going to be willing to take the journey of this poem. It moves in so many different ways and keeps asking the reader to take it seriously in the language/images to the physical structure of it.
Talk to be about the balance of the surreal and the real in this poem?
This poem to me explores so much of the anxiety and the pressure of being a human being in this world in large/courageous imagery. I wanted it to feel real to the reader and the narrator but warped in a sense. The idea of a country kitchen which the reader can see/visualize and maybe feel one day. To later read 28 days of red exposure.
I'm also super interested in form. There is a severeness to the form in this piece I was really compelled by. How do you discover or create form in your work?
Currently right now as a writer form to me is another way to bring a severe feeling to the reader. In this poem the form was intended to bring the anxiety the narrator is feeling and also the emotion of loose thoughts/emotions.