Doug Roy, Bird Man, Cut Paper
Towheads
(for Leah)
They took us in chains to the harbor, to the ship
that would take us back to the motherland.
We had tried so hard to fit in
laughed non-stop, stretched all of our vowels
mangled the consonants
but we were found out at last
caught in the town square at 3AM doing the national dance
striped pajamas, twenty paces apart
right hands clutching dueling pistols
left hands curled behind our heads
then up on our toes, three leaps, four pirouettes.
The crowd surrounded us and hurled insults
“get thee hence cultural revanchists, sausageheads
leave and take your mildewed translations of Maxim Gorky
your mini skirts, mopeds, muttonchops, maypole-hugging milquetoast miscreants!
Take your trained zebras, your wildebeest pastries, your invisible ink
and be gone.”
____________
Rick Adang
Review by Massimiliano Nastri
As a commentary on the risks, the dangers of both extreme assimilation and ‘new’ cultural requests, I found it very engaging as a reader and at the right distance between the author and its subject. The awareness of how sounds are meant to ease into acceptability, as a member of society, as a poet, how the images progress from personal (the vowels) to exterior and performative (the duel) is spot-on.