On Domesticity
by Mag Gabbert
聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 after Craig Santos Perez
just be you
-thful and play host
聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 -age, just act
聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 like someone who
聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 -le even if you鈥檙e a pie
聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 -ce of me
聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽-at, just try to be
聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽-have like a cut
聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 -e little pet doe
聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 -s
As I鈥檝e noted below the poem鈥檚 title, this piece is indebted to Craig Santos Perez, whose wonderful poem 鈥淎rs Pasifika鈥� first introduced me to the form I use here. Since I first encountered that work, I鈥檝e written a number of pieces that engage with and manipulate Perez鈥檚 technique. I suppose I feel especially drawn to it because it allows me to emphasize two things that I greatly value in poetry: play and multiplicity. Here, for example, even though the poem鈥檚 subject matter is fairly dark, there鈥檚 nevertheless a sense of play when reading it, since it requires a sort of constant reorientation with the language. And, throughout that jolting process, I believe the poem successfully performs something of what it describes鈥攖he addressed female subject鈥檚 process of disillusionment and objectification alongside her coming-of-age. These, too, are disorienting experiences, and my hope is that my poem expresses them in multi-faceted ways.
is the author of Sex Depression Animals, selected by Kathy Fagan as the winner of the 2021 Charles B. Wheeler Prize in Poetry. She is the recipient of a Discovery Award from 92NY鈥檚 Unterberg Poetry Center, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, Idyllwild Arts, and Poetry at Round Top. Her work can be found in The American Poetry Review, The Paris Review Daily, Copper Nickel, Guernica, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere. Gabbert has an MFA from UC Riverside and a PhD from Texas Tech. She lives in Dallas, Texas, and teaches at Southern Methodist University.