POETRY December 1, 2017

I Hate a Poem with Poem in It

Luiza Flynn-Goodlett

by Luiza Flynn-Goodlett

 
It’s a Southern tic—we only tell truth
to a screen door, swinging closed; never
simply ask, instead say, Would you care

for potatoes? wait for someone to return
the favor; despite shearling and Doc
Martens, I was sure nobody knew I’d

been playing scales along the neighbor
girl’s thighs; mother only told us after
surgery, once it went well; even when

they heard I wasn’t the first child he’d
pulled into those woods, no one was
called—we dissemblers, muddled as

the mint in a julep, erect monuments to
history we can’t face, won’t just say,
Yep, it’s a poem, now, pass the potatoes.

Luiza Flynn-Goodlett is the author of the chapbooks Congress of Mud (Finishing Line Press) and the forthcoming Unseasonable Weather (dancing girl press). Her work can be found in Granta, Indiana Review, Redivider, DIAGRAM, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She serves as poetry editor for Foglifter Press, and lives in sunny Oakland, California.
Luiza Flynn-Goodlett is the author of the chapbooks Congress of Mud (Finishing Line Press) and the forthcoming Unseasonable Weather (dancing girl press). Her work can be found in Granta, Indiana Review, Redivider, DIAGRAM, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She serves as poetry editor for Foglifter Press, and lives in sunny Oakland, California.