23 May 2017
[breeding plumage]
This poem, written entirely in quatrains, began by thinking about a single word: “mook”—Italian-American slang meaning 'idiot' (gendered male) that, by the late 90's-early 00's, began to refer to a style of music called 'nu-metal' and 'rap rock'. Loosely investigating this unsuspecting transformation of that word, I’ve weaved in media that I’ve found resembling/commenting on/recycling (sometimes unawares, sometimes full-well knowing) an ambiguous subtext—the vague embrace of ignorant and toxic masculinity, and, further, artistic attempts to define oneself through a kind of subcultural whiteness.
clicking on the egret
egret
bill-board swording
culture cutting
grit guzzling
great, little, cattle, snowy, reddish
can’t remove
the wanton moon
of forgotten regrets
by crooning
this is the chatter of youth
this is a matter of nookie-nation
going limp
attesting tumescent
mated
paranoia & evanescence
ordained
huckish cauldron stirring
heron heron
it’s not gone
it’s all hawked up
& fed to feathered young
like a chorus of re-versed verbs
tired codas fishing
for birds
[...]
This poem, written entirely in quatrains, began by thinking about a single word: “mook”—Italian-American slang meaning 'idiot' (gendered male) that, by the late 90's-early 00's, began to refer to a style of music called 'nu-metal' and 'rap rock'. Loosely investigating this unsuspecting transformation of that word, I’ve weaved in media that I’ve found resembling/commenting on/recycling (sometimes unawares, sometimes full-well knowing) an ambiguous subtext—the vague embrace of ignorant and toxic masculinity, and, further, artistic attempts to define oneself through a kind of subcultural whiteness.
EXCERPT — read the rest at
Entropy Magazine by
clicking on the egret
egret
bill-board swording
culture cutting
grit guzzling
great, little, cattle, snowy, reddish
can’t remove
the wanton moon
of forgotten regrets
by crooning
this is the chatter of youth
this is a matter of nookie-nation
going limp
attesting tumescent
mated
paranoia & evanescence
ordained
huckish cauldron stirring
heron heron
it’s not gone
it’s all hawked up
& fed to feathered young
like a chorus of re-versed verbs
tired codas fishing
for birds
[...]
