Edythe Rodriguez is a Philly-based poet who studied Africology and creative writing at Temple University. She loves neo-soul, battle rap, and long walks through old poetry journals. Edythe has received fellowships from The Watering Hole, Brooklyn Poets, and Palm Beach Poetry Festival. Her poems are published or forthcoming in Obsidian, Sonku, Emergent Literary, and Call and Response Journal. Follow Edythe online at EdytheRodriguez.com and on Instagram.
The Spook Who Poemed by Her Altar and Not at the Feet of Academia
by Edythe Rodriguez
PDF version available as the formatting may not be compatible with all devices.
and the poets say: we speak English
there is no escaping the West
in our poems
they say:
there is no escaping form
though I never asked
them to do so, exactly.
what I asked was:
what did a sonnet
ever do for you?
what I asked was:
do villanelles let you burn
down the Vatican?
what I asked was:
when you write colonial
limericks about decolonization
does the poem
self-destruct?
what I said was:
their forms measure nooses
in iambic pentameter,
they lynch lines
that snap necks
and dance in
the soundwork,
they split couples
and ask for couplets,
they have the most
tragic enjambments, break
ing lines across your back,
their hooded chants
become your refrain,
they put ten lines
between you
and the auction block and say
sell or be sold.
and the poets say:
there is no escaping the West
in our poems
there is no outrunning the white man
in our heads
and I have to ask them:
How you do know?
Did you even try?
Did you even run?
and I had to ask them:
when they light their torches,
when they come to burn Ethiopia
to the ground,
why do you join them?
why do you cry for your people
and still set us ablaze?
and the poets answer:
when in Rome
Torch Literary Arts is a nonprofit organization established to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike. TORCH has featured work by Colleen J. McElroy, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Elizabeth Alexander, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, writing workshops, and retreats.
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