BIRCH

WILEY

<div style="white-space: nowrap; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.01em;">What to name violence? Punishment for <span style="font-style: italic;">a body</span></div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.339em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.02em;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span style="font-style: italic;">experiencing</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">misrecognition</span>? For refusal to unhave</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.339em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.07em;">this body? For being unfit for structure? For</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.339em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.00em;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span style="font-style: italic;">beyonding</span>? For closing the hollow of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Foucauldian</span></div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.339em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 1.24em;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span style="font-style: italic;">power-pleasure spiral</span>? This <span style="font-style: italic;">discursive process</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>goes on.</div><div style="white-space: nowrap;">I set out</div> <div style="white-space: nowrap;">on a wordless melody</div> <div style="white-space: nowrap;">what touches me</div> <div style="white-space: nowrap;">will not enter me</div> <div style="white-space: nowrap; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.05em;">Name the action, its subjects, objects, repeat details</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.339em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.01em;">of clinical approximation: <span style="font-style: italic;">narcotics found in, bruising</span></div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.339em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.01em;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span style="font-style: italic;">of, lesions to, consistent with.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>This <span style="font-style: italic;">medicalization of the sex</span></div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.339em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; padding-left: 18.74em;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span style="font-style: italic;">discourse</span>. This <span style="font-style: italic;">institutional impetus to speech</span>.</div><div style="white-space: nowrap;">what enters me</div> <div style="white-space: nowrap;">will not become me</div> <div style="white-space: nowrap;">I am city walled</div> <div style="white-space: nowrap; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.04em;">The words sprint: small stones, frozen water,</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.339em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; padding-left: 18.74em;">mirrors against mirrors.</div><div style="white-space: nowrap;">I could be small water</div> <div style="white-space: nowrap;">frozen stone</div> <div style="white-space: nowrap;">sound unlettered</div> <div style="white-space: nowrap;">I could be nothing</div> <div style="white-space: nowrap;">language can answer</div>

<div style="white-space: nowrap; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.05em;">Plastic cup of whiskey sixteen dollars plus tax plus tip and still</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.03em;">not enough to remove me from me. See me see you fawn-freckled</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.02em;">on the sidelines, blacklight shining dust-stars on our black cloth, so</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.02em;">carefully selected. No sky in the city tonight, just sweat and lurch</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.05em;">on sugared floors, bathroom powders and pocket poppers to make</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.00em;">magic of an emptied warehouse. Let me reach for the down of your</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.05em;">cheek, backlit by strobe and neon.</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.01em;">I came tonight certain I’d leave</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.01em;">with those who brought me.</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.01em;">They make a tight circle to</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.04em;">dance in undisturbed, but</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.01em;">you and I don’t want to dance.</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.06em;">Let me take your hand. You can</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.04em;">lead me to a train that split</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.06em;">stone to reach us. In the cave of</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.06em;">your bed let me show you what</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.04em;">our bodies are made for. Most everyone I couldn’t care less about.</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.03em;">Some I hold grudges against just for their happy-beautiful faces. But</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.01em;">you were built to be a night creature, too, pale predator eyes turned</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.221em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.01em;">my way. Let me finish this drink and you can take me someplace</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.206em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; text-align: right; margin-left: auto; width: 100%; padding-right: 0.03em;">quiet. Let me listen to your chest, ocean caught in a shell, bass</div><div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-top: -0.218em; display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10;">knocking on boot soles, loud as the last call.</div>