I've also read this in front of big 'ol groups of people. One group liked it, the other not so much. Audience is important. Bombing is also important.
litany: 1. a prayer consisting of a series of invocations and supplications by the leader with alternate responses by the congregation. 2. a resonant or repetitive chant. b. a usually lengthy recitation or enumeration. c a sizable series or set.
supplicate: 1. ask humbly and earnestly of. 2. to ask for earnestly and humbly.
Litany for the Wordless
"Dear god almighty," has become a curse in my mouth.
A lashing
reaching from fissured enamel
and tongue tip
to say:
I want meat and gnashing teeth--
Meaning to supplement the open mouths.
I give words from sounds.
"Say: Ni. Th. Cu. Cat.
Say: A. a. ah. aa. I i am.
Then I hand her the pen to scribe the words
"He hurts me. When my baby cries
My breasts leak. He bites, and it feels like rape."
dear, christ almighty, save me from the futility of prayer.
Oh, method and practice,
grant me the aptitude to
teach a woman with worn hands,
wooly mammoth hair--
to give her the words to protect
the gash between her thighs--
to save her sons from the wrath of misunderstanding--
to prevent the unraveling of another generation of
passing, of yes sirs, vapid noddings, poverty,
endless migration.
This is for the wordless and the undersexed--
The wordless who mimic for want of identity.
The undersexed who
sleep and
eat and
work alone
for want of mixing love with status.
For the undersexed who's names are
Older than the histories they're allowed to remember.
For the XY's coupling with the XX's I say
We want proud rounded curved bodies to
touch other hard/soft bodies
kindly, gently and with deference.
In acts of work
and
love and
education
I want phonemes and in strokes
to collide
roughly with passion
like an ax to bark or
gracefully like whittling.
Dear god, let them read to know the words
to write to say, "I am, too."
A lashing
reaching from fissured enamel
and tongue tip
to say:
I want meat and gnashing teeth--
Meaning to supplement the open mouths.
I give words from sounds.
"Say: Ni. Th. Cu. Cat.
Say: A. a. ah. aa. I i am.
Then I hand her the pen to scribe the words
"He hurts me. When my baby cries
My breasts leak. He bites, and it feels like rape."
dear, christ almighty, save me from the futility of prayer.
Oh, method and practice,
grant me the aptitude to
teach a woman with worn hands,
wooly mammoth hair--
to give her the words to protect
the gash between her thighs--
to save her sons from the wrath of misunderstanding--
to prevent the unraveling of another generation of
passing, of yes sirs, vapid noddings, poverty,
endless migration.
This is for the wordless and the undersexed--
The wordless who mimic for want of identity.
The undersexed who
sleep and
eat and
work alone
for want of mixing love with status.
For the undersexed who's names are
Older than the histories they're allowed to remember.
For the XY's coupling with the XX's I say
We want proud rounded curved bodies to
touch other hard/soft bodies
kindly, gently and with deference.
In acts of work
and
love and
education
I want phonemes and in strokes
to collide
roughly with passion
like an ax to bark or
gracefully like whittling.
Dear god, let them read to know the words
to write to say, "I am, too."
