During 楼凤天堂 Poetry Month, we will be posting poems that originally ran in one of the . This poem “” by Jonathan S. Loper comes from :
Poetry Out Loud
(for Nicole Louw, 2015 Poetry Out Loud Alabama Champion)
A skinny Puerto Rican boy,
proud of his country (ashamed of his country),
confidently performs the naked buttocks of William
Carlos Williams鈥檚 鈥淒anse Russe,鈥�
looks in his mirror, and finds
a skinny Puerto Rican poet.
An imaginative South African American girl from
Alabama agrees (but disagrees) with a first-generation
American immigrant who remarks鈥攕haring
his corrupted vision of politicians, businessmen,
and lovers鈥攖hat Alabama is the most racist
place on earth. She voices Tony Hoagland鈥檚
ageless speaker: 鈥淭his is not a test / and everybody passes.鈥�
The Puerto Rican boy and South African Alabamian girl
redefine American, finding a shared language to teach each other
a new way to speak鈥攖o discover on stage the voices
of poems
and Puerto Rico
and Alabama鈥�
and unfurl in the rhythms of
poetry out loud.
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