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Laurie J. MacDiarmid

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Tag: I'm not saying I'm like you but that I like you

April 27, 2023

Twenty Seven

The Contract Says: 
We'd Like the Conversation to be Bilingual
            --- ADA LIMÓN

When you come, bring your brown-
ness so we can be sure to please
 
the funders. Will you check this
box; we’re applying for a grant.
 
Do you have any poems that speak
to troubled teens? Bilingual is best.
 
Would you like to come to dinner
with the patrons and sip Patrón?
 
Will you tell us the stories that make
us uncomfortable, but not complicit?
 
Don’t read the one where you
are just like us. Born to a green house,
 
garden, don’t tell us how you picked
tomatoes and ate them in the dirt
 
watching vultures pick apart another
bird’s bones in the road. Tell us the one
 
about your father stealing hubcaps
after a colleague said that’s what his
 
kind did. Tell us how he came
to the meeting wearing a poncho
 
and tried to sell the man his hubcaps
back. Don’t mention your father
 
was a teacher, spoke English, loved
making beer, loved baseball, tell us
 
again about the poncho, the hubcaps,
how he stole them, how he did the thing
 
he was trying to prove he didn’t do.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147503/the-contract-says-we39d-like-the-conversation-to-be-bilingual

The Contract Also Says

Keep your voice down and don't talk about
bodily issues or functions at the dinner table.

Be attractive, be demure, be willing to 
change yourself to suit the audience; 

be available but
only to those silver-haired patrons 

who could be your father
['s boss' boss], or who 

celebrate your "difference" as if 
they're the only ones who can see it

as a "gift." 
Don't say "I know" 

if someone [named Don] 
tells you you're brilliant. 

Always admit that you "couldn't do it 
without the support of wonderful people" 

like those gathered at the expensive table. 
And if anyone asks what you "do" 

for a living, laugh and say "I write
poems" or "I teach" because to call yourself

a poet? That's just arrogant. And it's
someone else's job to "do."

Suggested soundtrack: polite applause.

Categories: Poem a Day 2023 Tags: Ada Limon, contract for lady poets, I'm not saying I'm like you but that I like you Leave a comment

What’s New

  • … and Thirty. April 30, 2023
  • Twenty Nine April 29, 2023
  • Twenty Eight April 28, 2023
  • Twenty Seven April 27, 2023
  • Twenty Six April 26, 2023
  • Twenty Five April 25, 2023
  • Twenty Four April 24, 2023
  • Twenty Three April 23, 2023
  • Twenty Two April 22, 2023
  • Twenty One April 21, 2023

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