We are stupid, meaning amazed

By Arisa White

We are stupid, meaning amazed. We are assholes, meaning we are free

to let go, away. We are jerks, meaning this movement isn’t allowed.

Body languages, coincidences are neither heads nor tails.

We subsist on our magnified faces, narcissists. We the island

that destroys as much as it gives. We make hairy nettles.

We love like erosion and feel raw when looked upon. You warned me

we were fucked, meaning our shadows are bottomless.

On occasion when our wounds switch blades, we cut the forest slash.

We keep initial abandonments safe, on rewind—we are unsatisfied.

You suck the salt right out of me. I am immature. Distrustful of that

hemline, we’re on the last outskirts of each other. Meaning, we are torn.

Arisa White is a Cave Canem fellow, an MFA graduate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is the author of the chapbooks Disposition for Shininess and Post Pardon, as well as the full-length collections Hurrah’s Nest and A Penny Saved. Her debut collection, Hurrah’s Nest, was nominated for a 44th NAACP Image Award and is a finalist for the 82nd California Book Awards. Co-editor for HER KIND, an online literary community powered by VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, and the editorial manager for Dance Studio Life magazine, Arisa has received residencies, fellowships, or scholarships from Port Townsend Writers’ Conference, Rose O’Neill Literary House, Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Hedgebrook, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Prague Summer Program, Fine Arts Work Center, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2005, her poetry has been widely published and is featured on the recording WORD with the Jessica Jones Quartet. Arisa is a native New Yorker, living in Oakland, CA, with her partner. For more information visit arisawhite.com or facebook.com/Arisapage.