United States, (b. 1945)
SPAM RISK
- It was always a risk.
- Trying to talk poetry
- To the indifferent
- Royalty of that tiny kingdom
- Inside the brain which is inside
- Another brain. Which is where,
- Class, it’s all academic. Like Theory,
- Robo-solicitors or spam in a can
- Packed without breath in slick
- Jello. It tastes vaguely familiar, like
- The once-living happy pig, ignorant
- Of the risk when the butcher visits
- The pen, eliciting slippery awe.
- Still, the shadow of the meat hook
- Swings overhead, as he speaks
- Of watch out for what? Where
- there’s manure is mortality.
- His voice brutal-soft as a
- Lullaby about a cradle falling out
- Of the sky. Pigs fall out of the sky
- Into the sty, where the packers
- Unpack the process for them.
- The butcher owns the spoils,
- The scream inside what we eat.
- But the pigs, the pigs shuffle
- Toward the Gate, toward the
- Press of all flesh into rendering –
- Rapid fat crossing the tracks.
- Class, look sharp: this is your brain
- Before the impact of killer insight
- you can’t resist.
About the Poet:
Carol Muske-Dukes, United States, (b. 1945), is a poet, novelist, essayist, critic, professor, and the former poet laureate of California. She is professor of English/Creative Writing at the University of So. Calif. where she founded the PhD Program in Creative Writing/Literature.
Muske-Dukes is the author of 9 books of poems, the most recent is Blue Rose, which is a 2019 Pulitzer Prize short-list finalist. She has also published four novels, inc. Channeling Mark Twain (2003). Muske-Dukes is also an essayist and anthology editor. Her two collections of essays, include Married to the Icepick Killer: a Poet in Hollywood and an anthology of poems, co-edited with Bob Holman – Crossing State Lines: an American Renga, plus two children’s poetry “handbooks” – The Magical Poetry Blimp Pilot’s Guide, 1 & 2.
Muske-Dukes has been the recipient of many awards & honors, including a Guggenheim fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grant, Library of Congress Award, Castagnola Award, Ingram/Merrill award and others. [DES-06/22]
Additional information:
- Carol Muske-Dukes website – https://www.carolmuskedukes.com/.