Improv 1, Week 3

This is a riff of Adrian Matejka's poem, "What The Dead Are Missing Out On."


What The Dead Are Missing Out On:

Sections of a woman’s body,
misappropriated angelically—
this hand, this wrist. The motion
of hand to hip, hip back to mouth.

Fresh understanding in water’s
cusp. The slice of skin between
shirt and skirt appearing
and re-appearing easily in the habit

of skin. A plate of barbeque
as spicy as a girl with a reputation.
Stevie Wonder chorusing with himself
because no one else can.

Permanence, like the stains on a motel
pillow.
Her voice, whoever she was.


This poem is filled with the element of motion, movement and action (lines 3-4, 6-8, 11-12). Then, by the end of the piece, there is a stark contrast by incorporating the element of still-ness. Permanence is a non-movement that seems to reflect memory in the poem by being coupled with the final line: Her voice, whoever she was (lines 13-15). Yet “she” is the person embodied throughout the entire piece. My work shall attempt to replicate the presentation of one element, and contrasting that element at the end with an object that embodies the piece as a whole.


What the Deaf Do Not Hear:

Vibrations of a snare drum
Pressed tightly—
against the waist, the sternum. Tremors
quake of hip to side, side to mind

New meaning in a violin’s wired
whine. The back and forth motion between
Air and time marinating,
basking angelically in a drunken stupor

of insanity. The ting-a ling of the bell
as soprano as a virgin’s first cry.
Pop king’s shaky tenor
no one else can match.

Stillness, like an abandoned
forest.
She retreats, her identity lost.