Table of Contents
PENGUIN BOOKS MIXOLOGY
ADRIAN MATEJKA is a graduate of the Southern Illinois University Carbondale MFA program. The author of The Devils Garden, his work has appeared in the American Poetry Review, Gulf Coast, Crab Orchard Review, and Prairie Schooner. He teaches creative writing and English literature at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
THE NATIONAL POETRY SERIES
The National Poetry Series was established in 1978 to ensure the publication of five poetry books annually through five participating publishers. Publication is funded by the Lannan Foundation; Stephen Graham; Joyce & Seward Johnson Foundation; Glenn and Renee Schaeffer, Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation; and, Charles B. Wright III.
2008 COMPETITION WINNERS
Anna Journey of Houston, Texas,
If Birds Gather Your Hair for Nesting
Chosen by Thomas Lux, to be published by University of Georgia Press
Douglas Kearney of Van Nuys, California,
The Black Automaton
Chosen by Catherine Wagner, to be published by Fence Books
Adrian Matejka of Edwardsville, Illinois,
Mixology
Chosen by Kevin Young, to be published by Penguin Books
Kristin Naca of Minneapolis, Minnesota,
Bird Eating Bird
Chosen by Yusef Komunyakaa for The National Poetry Series mtvU Prize, to be published by HarperCollins Publishers
Sarah OBrien of Brookfield, Ohio, catch light
Chosen by David Shapiro, to be published by Coffee House Press
FOR MARLEY AND STACEY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to the editors of the journals in which these poems have appeared:
Salt Hill Journal: Do the Right Thing, This Be The Verse
Crab Orchard Review: Language Mixology, Synth Composite Basketball: No more Leather, Tyndall Armory
Drunken Boat: Beneath the Bass Line, Samson and Delilah
Gulf Coast: Maggot Brain, Tommy Johnson
Indiana Review: Affirmative Action
LIT: Bob Kaufman Trip
Mot Juste: What the Dead are Missing Out On:
Natural Bridge: Americas First and Foremost Black Superstar, Colloquialisms
Ninth Letter: Babel by Foot
Painted Bride Quarterly: Domo Arigato, Mr. Mulatto (Dub Style), Ode to Fela (1938-97), Where o Where is the Blues? Blues,
Pleiades: Mulatto Ego Remix, Synth Composite Basketball: No More Fundamentals
Prairie Schooner: Sampled Biography, Seven Days of Falling, Wheels of Steel, Winter / Weird Fishes
Landscaped Postcard as Jimi Hendrix appears in the anthology Kiss the Sky: Fiction and Poetry Starring Jimi Hendrix (Paycock Press, 2007)
Affirmative Action was selected for Metro Arts in Transit and the Poetry Society of America 2008 Poetry in Motion Series
Language Mixology also appeared on Verse Daily (www.versedaily.org) (May 10, 2006)
Some of the poems also appear in text and audio form at From the Fishouse (www.fishousepoems.org) .
Thank you to the gang of artists whose generosity helped shape these poems in one way or another: Willis Barnstone, Stacey Lynn Brown, Cornelius Eady, Paul Guest, Major Jackson, Rodney Jones, A. Van Jordan, Melanie Jordan, Allison Joseph, Douglas Kearney, Ruth Ellen Kocher, Yusef Komunyakaa, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Shara McCallum, Kevin Neireiter, Marilyn Nelson, April Ossmann, Greg Pardlo, Oliver de la Paz, Hilda Raz, Cedric Ross, Matthew Shenoda, Sean Singer, Jon Tribble, Frank X. Walker, Daniel Wideman, the River Styx basketball posse, my SIUE clique, and to my family, real and imagined.
Many thanks also to the National Poetry Series, Paul Slovak at Penguin, and Kevin Young for selecting the book.
Synthetic Race
(Dub Style)
SEVEN DAYS OF FALLING
Today, Im assimilating like margarine into hotcakes. Im getting down
like Danny LaRusso after the against-the-rules leg sweep. So low,
Ill be a flower in common decencys lapel. Factual, the same way Zanzibar
means sea of blacks to anyone who isnt from there. Where is Juan Valdez,
his burroesque dependability when you need him ? I had a friend who minted
t-shirts with Juan front and center, an afro instead of a sombrero, a power
fist in place of a smile. The inscription: 100 % Colombian. Im going the way
of skinradio waves, thoughts like ear-to-ear transmissions grounded
into the ozone on the way from mindless space to forgetful Earth. Man, my skin
doesnt need me any more than mold needs cheese. On this day of cellophane
lunchboxes and hand grenades reshaping my palms into their own militaristic orbit, there are only oceans to catch me. On this day, something needs
to catalogue me: a hall monitor doubled wide by ambition,
a goldfish with thumbs hitchhiking toward a fishbowl full of dub.
DOMO ARIGATO, MR. MULATTO (DUB STYLE)
SAMPLE ONE:
Youre wondering who I am / am-am-a-ah-we-ammmmm...
I have a mish-mash falsetto: vigorous, robotic like a biter nibbling some other emcee for a rumor of validity. Kids call it hateration,
but in this here world of Dictaphones and stethoscopes, one brown is as bad as the next. It doesnt matter if the pigment is seasonal
or gene pooled in a euphoria of sun spots. Its the falsetto, not the tongue clicking dis but meaning dat in the mix. Its the falsetto
a better idea than explanation like an umbrella made of handkerchiefs. Better in person than polaroids like a sponge bath of fingerprints.
SAMPLE TWO:
Ive got a see-see-secret Ive b-e-E-eeeeen hiding under my sk-sk-skiwee-wee-in...
Fingerprints in my sponge bath, a squabble between appearance and what is meant like Denzel
telling Ethan, Muthafucka, anger is waking up with a bad goatee. At least thats what he should
have said. I used to get mad that Denzel won his Oscar for playing a roped-out G until I realized
playing and being are both gerunds. There is a password for understanding skin, but its more lack of observation
on your end, homie. When the sun shines, its blinging outside. Even if your shades are drawn, homie.
SAMPLE THREE:
I am... I izam... the modern ma-ma-ma-hn, who hides behind a ma-weeee-ask...
Homie, dont blame the Halloween masks, scuba masks, eye
and mouth joints used to rob the corner market for your lack of bling. My mask has teeth and tear marks like bison meat.
Open sockets like somebody took the bulbs out. It fits
easily in a sack of nomenclature without clout. And all the ladies
saying, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah... There once was a white boy
who could get into all the parties using the same story:
