splinters are children of wood
THE ERNEST SANDEEN PRIZE IN POETRY
Editors
Joyelle McSweeney, Orlando Menes
2019
Splinters Are Children of Wood, Leia Penina Wilson
2017
Among Ruins, Robert Gibb
2015
Underdays, Martin Ott
2013
The Yearning Feed, Manuel Paul López
2011
Dreamlife of a Philanthropist, Janet Kaplan
2009
Juan Luna’s Revolver, Louisa A. Igloria
Editor
John Matthias (1997–2007)
2007
The Curator of Silence, Jude Nutter
2005
Lives of the Sleepers, Ned Balbo
2003
Breeze, John Latta
2001
No Messages, Robert Hahn
1999
The Green Tuxedo, Janet Holmes
1997
True North, Stephanie Strickland
splinters
are
children
of
wood
LEIA PENINA WILSON
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
Copyright © 2019 by Leia Penina Wilson
Published by the University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 USA
undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wilson, Leia Penina, author.
Title: Splinters are children of wood / Leia Penina Wilson.
Description: Notre Dame, Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press, [2019] | Series: Ernest Sandeen prize in poetry
Identifiers: LCCN 2019023573 (print) | LCCN 2019023574 (ebook) | ISBN 9780268106171 (hardback ; alk. paper) | ISBN 9780268106188 (trade paperback ; alk. paper) | ISBN 9780268106201 (pdf ) | ISBN 9780268106195 (epub)
Classification: LCC PS3623.I585483 A6 2019 (print) | LCC PS3623.I585483 (ebook) | DDC 811/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019023573
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019023574
∞This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
i do like
how they burn
look at them burn
so many children
look how they burn
those childrenthat
single hurt color
i do disobedience
to personor to poem
undoing personand poem
undeal all my feelings
i offer you this ruined root—
these pansies—who forfeit beauty for survival—
i promise you can still eat them
this gurl’s body
second burial blue memory truetrue feeling deadfinally
finally
dead finally we feast
i fill my own emptiness
tie a ribbon to a tree
leave coconut milk & honeythe white fleece of a young ram
i borrow the best picked men
pick from their bones the best picked women
what’s a sentence anyway—prisons
with prisoners’ castles
fairytale i know
fairytale i don’t
making the labor of arranging words
sacred—i say be
be
be
be
quick—throw tongues into the fire
fill a bloodbowl
offer enough wine
—bathe in the fire—
tell me are you grieving gurl
r u
r u grieving
gurl
r u
grievinggurl
yes— yes cunt
yes cunt
yes cunt
we sing welcome first earth first mother first morning
each red hibiscus reddens
learning shapeshifting
our bones don’t settle—who
do i womb—ha!
who do i woo—woe!
tell me do you believe in resurrection
braiding moon
light into my long braidi do not
flaunt my magici do not
seek to dwellbeastish brutish
banishedyet i do love
—who misspells sacred missed a spell
scared scarred
scar redscathingcat thingcaredcarried
for whose sakesake
almost an acheraceacreher
arean insistence of being
reed read
my spell does not miss—we carve
on each other’s body rivers woodsvalleys every evening flower
we carve i am
i am
i am
meaning i am samoan
i am afakasi
i am warrior witch word
we carve the world
the gurl
CONTENTS
am i the world or the gurl
i appear seeking revenge for the destruction of those children
you must always feed from the bodies
end notes & debts (of love)
AM I THE WORLD OR THE GURL
the world is always burning always burning the gurl always dies always dies am
i the world or the gurl always burning always dying
WE CRAVE THE WORLD THE GURL WE CARVE I
bury a doll in the shape of myself
i unlife themover and over
againagain homer’s child
plato’s childthose forms
foregrounding another’s authority
orpheus’ head floats off body
off coursei give up
understandingo mother
receive this prayer—happy cannibalism!
i too fear the heavensi shear
a lock of my hairi unutter
godi fall before you now
a shield
i dig her uptear her body apart
get at the good meatredmeat
marrowmeatheartmeatwomb
i eat& unmourn
my tongue
hurts into itmanyheaded
manypetaledmany
mistakesmade to say
epic is a wild thing.
WE CARVE TENDERNESS
she comes too near & feeds from the bodies
into shapes is shaped now her
christmas tree violence ginger man violence reindeer violence
did you know reindeer could be violent all that merry
snow everywhere snow that unwarm moisture the shyness
start fluffing it this prison is very old and prisoning
bee remover pigeon control pink wallpaper with horses and maids—
o it’s rowdy so very rowdy
& yet did you know me hands—
i went the fork’d way you showed
my mouthspat its gravel & yet
when i killed my father i frightened
youi had only models of ripping
off your clothes & i couldn’t
i will not be noisy when you want me to be still i will be glad—
everything lays its corpse but i will not
die i will not repent.
WE CARVE WITHOUT NICETIES HISTORICAL ACCURACY
each man’s end is all the cunt for himself.
i lay an iris for each of us who in poverty walks behind eurydice.
combat of beauty and pleasure. probably i won’t she says
we were each other’s vicious education.we lear
ned so much
we ruined.they built monuments to our broken
bones said even our english was broke
a shape of a monster a woman some mal formed skin over
bones over skin over bones
plenty of fatfatthe shape of make it out alive make it out alive.
—do we ever
don’t be that bitch just behead your lover that learning.
there is a wraith in the birth trees watch out—
i ask the prophet the seer who dreams for dreams too
permit me death too.
i cut my own throat close my own wound wear my own
nightdescended blood.i will seek aide from my own
enemies if there are friends here hide your eyes.
WE CARVE FROM WHAT WE KNOW THE REAL LESSON BELIEVE
nothing.sacrifice everything
believe innothing
be nothinghow
did you get away with that for so long—we wish
on a shooting starcombine our powersi do not
want to be lonelyyour slick
afterbirthfailed body of
hectorprophetic womanheadhead of
whatever you kill & carry around
this killing your stilled-lifethis battle again
again is tiresomeall these old white men
and their same feelings—moon chalice! i want!
to be stronghow will you answer lover! cunt! exile!
the city some dreamydreamagain trapped
an imagination limited by that imaginationi miss
somehow now weighted againstsatisfaction
o grim mouthgrim reaper—just watch me
step into the sea out
of (your) reachagain you think yourself a great original
to have pleased me (once)—what
words will move me
what desire cuts throat to naveli cut it out
i regret only the intimacy—in the thralls
of the jaws of another afternoon
we demand the other’s red—another transformation
rainbow double moon heartache! or
what dream what maiden what full name
did they stitch you up in
angry dead animal skin
to mirror your angry dead animal soul
rage yetrecognition
WE CARVE CARVE CARVE
i am i am i am
each man’s end
an end
and
&
WE CARVE THE ONE WE KNOW
i lay my hand in the wolf ’s mouth
the wolf knows it will lose its freedom i will lose my hand
we stare at each other like lovers like we don’t need freedom or hands
like the sea hasn’t risen to welcome us backlike we haven’t lost her
it’s always a her my island body recoilsas they try to rename me
every mispronounced syllable a papercutso many papercuts
i die i try to imagine it hurts less this timemy imagination falters
dropping to one knee i leave blood wonder when it will be used against me
the sea that encloses heryoung body is the sea of many
arms i can’t flick what’s leftover out
i just rub it in stain it good what fragrance
is this my favorite smellthe blazing secrecy of noon
once more undone it’s all pasted underneath my fingernails
underneath the sea where it is dark & muddy & i am blind
underneath the sea where it is dark there is no edge so
sleep my sistersleep
WE CARVE THE ONE YOU KNOW
they feed me this new violencemadonnaun
updated whore—
they make me into a real rat & marvel
my loss of fear
sibyl or unreliable narrator—my abstract
says something about early 20th century modernism
i don’t feel moderni do feel a machine
they braid purple flowers into my hair & wonder
at its longits softness
they smell it—more lavender more lavender
you will never hear it againthey say the closeness
of the earth the skyyou will never
see it againthey say those autumn oak leaves
lose the softness of your sexherelet me soften you
with sexthey do
i can’t write this poemi hate them
is this my epicwanting all white
men deadreally all men
isn’t desire weirdthat it expresses
the entire spectrum of human emotion gets me
i think i’m tiredof poetry (is that okay to say)
what am i in possession of really
helen as she desires becomes capable antigone
muscles reacting that time i ate only bread
and milk the beautiful or the terrifying that
iciclewhat am i having neither launched 1,000 ships
nor thrown ashes into the air
nor grieved in those ways
WE CARVE BECAUSE WE MUST
there must be different words why else insist—let me
let me learn warlet me learn gathering
one flower two flower three flowerspring flower
unmediated yellow—know me!sprung
from clouds—calm afternoon clouds
don’t you see the winds love me! (frenetic laughter)
don’t you see the soil loves me! (a small quake)
they hate youdon’t you see even the dumb birds hate you
i can tell you don’t see.
i will not award you
for trying to save me from death for dying too
that’s so stupidlet me ask you
what would you learnfully armored
unblushed—spear& arrow& (shoulder shrug) guile
yet to take new bloodbefore someone kills someone kills someone
what would you learnlet melet me learn more than survival
let me learnthat survival
is everything said
in a great voice
wait!
is that it really
really
fuck
i am fucked.
WE CARVE
the middle
we eat this journeyit’s about
consuming againlifei came
to myself within a dark wood
here the direct waylost—
could i not possess a city
with my own hands
with my own desire
do i lack everything—
the red sun rises
& i saw you
myself.
WE CARVE WITH RESPECT THE GURL PRAYING
nafanua! ferocious warrior! samoan mother!
thank you for teaching me my power
alofa! alofa! alofa!yet i am called away
i don’t want to goglittering glittering
athena!this againi honor your maternal sinews
every corpse in its placeundreamt melancholyunhealed
will you let me return
somedayto those volcanic waters
one coin in one eye
mouth filled with holy dirtthe harvest moon
makes wine of our bloodi drink
the spittle of some birdoffend
the magnificent cow—o
magnificent cow so often i offend!
o comrades! spread your netsin these woods
i renounce my doubts
holy holy holy—i will not
runo bright conflict i do want your body
the dealshe is minei save heri am
an eelimagining myself a rhinoceros
a wild horse—
a sound soundingbronzehoofed
gold mane golden thighs golden cunt
don’t speak to me
of facts—i am a beara godly bearthe world looks at me
i allowhow vicious devotion
among jackalsthat red
>
gold hungeri consider all the words i know
unprove them
a pack of hunting dogs approach
i stand
open-armed—
WE CRAVE
what is itthey saythe extent of women’s eru
dition should consist of only simple letters
today she saysi learnto cut with my cunt
i learn to cut
with my cunti learn to
cut with my cunti learn to
cut with my cunti learn to cut with my cu
nt i learn to cut with my cunt i learn to
cut with my cunttoday i learn to
cut with my cunttoday i learn to
cut with my cunttoday i learn to cut with my cunt today
i learn to
cut with my cunttoday i learn to
cut with my cunttoday i learn to
cut with my cunttoday i learn to
cut with my cunttoday i learn to
cut with my cuntcut
with my cunt cut with my cunt cut with my cunt
cut with my cunt cut with my cunt
cut with my cunt
to cut with my cunt to cut with my cunt
to cut with my cunt to cut with my cunt
to cut with my cunt to cut with my cunt
to cut with my cunt to cut with my
cunt to cut with my cunt to cut with my
cunt to cut with my cunt to cut with my
cunt to cut with my cunt
to cut with my cunt cut with my cunt
cut with my cunttoday i learn to
cut with my cunttoday i learn to
cut with my cunt today i learn to cut with my cunt
today i learn to cut with my
my cunt to cut with my cunt today i learn to
cut with my cunt cut with my cunt cut with my cunt
cut with my cunt
today i learn to cut with my cunt
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