The Erotic Is a Measure Between by Kyle Dargan

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend August 3, 2015   The Erotic Is a Measure Between   Kyle Dargan

after Lorde   Your body is not my pommel horse nor my Olympic pool or diving board. Your body is not my personal Internet channel nor my timeline, nor my warm Apollo spotlight. Your body is not my award gala. Your body is not my game— preseason or playoffs. Your body is not my political party convention. Your body is not my frontline or my war’s theatre. Your body is not my time trial. Your body is not my entrance exam or naturalization interview. I am a citizen of this skin—that alone—and yours is not to be passed nor won. What is done— when we let our bodies sharpen the graphite of each other’s bodies —is not my test, not my solo show. One day I’ll learn. I’ll prove I know how to lie with you without anticipating the scorecards of your eyes, how I might merely abide—we two unseated, equidistant from the wings in a beating black box, all stage.            Copyright © 2015 by Kyle Dargan. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “I’ve kept Audre Lorde’s essay ‘Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power’ close by me ever since Nikky Finney introduced me to the work at the Cave Canem retreat many years ago. So much of sexuality is posited as something enacted upon women by hetero men. I wanted to complicate or challenge that notion. While re-reading Lorde’s essay in preparation for a panel discussion on taboo and sexuality in African-American poetry, a line from Lorde (which is now the title) gave me an avenue to attempt that.” —Kyle Dargan   Kyle Dargan is the author of Honest Engine (University of Georgia Press, 2015). He directs the MFA program at American University and lives in Washington, D.C.   Photo Credit: Marlene Hawthorne Poetry by Dargan   Honest Engine (University of Georgia Press, 2015) "The Fire" by Katie Ford "My Proteins" by Jane Hirshfield "Sweet Double, Talk-Talk [iv.]" by Catherine Barnett Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038