Associate Editor Caitlin Doyle: “Girl 1994: Gawd.” by Faylita Hicks combines narrative tension with a kinetic command of diction. As Hicks’s forward-driving couplets propel us down the page, the speaker’s awe toward “Gawd” imbues her with a kind of mythos that supercharges the poem’s language. The rich and constantly ricocheting sounds in this poem make this a miCRo feature that you absolutely must hear out loud. Check out the audio link below to listen to the poem read with grit and fire by Faylita Hicks:
Girl 1994: Gawd.
I watch the flood splash & truck
by my first-floor window
before I see Gawd strut by
with Her iron & forty ounce.
A wave of bodies—glittering onyx—catch air
dip & weave past the sill like a river of flies
that splinters suddenly at the sight of Her.
A legion of blxck ants tripping down the street
screaming RUN
as Gawd pulls a hammer—
whips spiders all through my kitchen.
Blxck hoodies scatter down the street
as Gawd saunters by
in slapping-pink slippers & creamy silk boxers—
unhinges. Reminds them
who they fucking with. Gawd heard Samson
got his dick wet—ships blxck hail
into my living room. Gawd says she’s gotta
knock that shit out—hawks a bullet
into my bathroom. Gawd—I think—
Samson better get his ass out there. Gawd about to break Her neck
on me, looking for a little Gawddamn justice.
Faylita Hicks (pronouns: she/her/they) is a black queer writer. She was a finalist in the 2018 PEN American Writing for Justice Fellowship and the 2018 Cosmonauts Avenue Annual Poetry Prize. Her debut book, HoodWitch, is forthcoming October 2019 through Acre Books.
Her poetry and essays have appeared in or are forthcoming in Slate, Huffington Post, POETRY magazine, Kweli Journal, The Rumpus, The Cincinnati Review, Tahoma Literary Review, Prairie Schooner, Lunch Ticket, Matador Review, and others.
She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Sierra Nevada College’s low-residency program and lives in San Marcos, Texas. She is at work on a memoir.
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