Place[meant] is a recurring series that explores identity beyond the geopolitical and physical parameters that have come to define our sense of place. From a train in Queens to the cuff of a bodily spell, the poems in this series navigate place as both material terrain and residual traces of one’s memory. Place[meant] delves into how migration, diaspora, borders, technologies of power and control, biopolitics, and historical violence shape our identities, the powers of which are anything but benign.


“from DIA L ETC”

R     (      말     ,          m  a  l  )     =                 {
(coordinates,       ), (directions,    )
(data, ), (a wind, arrived), (blew the faces,
from
the trees), (           ,            ), (what requires,
what),  (demands,  obscurity),   (shrouds,
a  day),   (&   nothing,   ),   (left  to  claim)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

{      (desire),    (weather),    (boundaries),    (light),
(coordinates), (coordination),  (nest/web),  (what
on a body is excess, excretion), (said the river, said
the  birches),  (there were none,  and  no  source),
(the body grew nails,                                          grew),
(headless and clear,   )
(the moon cracks, and something),
(slips out

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

{  (darkness),  (weather),  (calculations),
(         s         c          a          l         e        )       ,
(whalebone,      악/알), (vastness           /
resonance),          (like         semi-opaque,
reflection / blitz / beaks),    (we  turned
over slabs, obliquities of code                }

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

R(신,                          sheen)=                      {

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

{  (I’ve never seen the moon, only)  (dealt
it,  only)  (drank its cream,  I know)  (the
moon when it is inside, when it is inside,
when     I)      (am     pulling     its    cords)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(were   the   hounds    lapping,  did    they   lick   your
haunches,  were  the  hinds),   (white,   &   flickering),
(like pixels in the dusk, were you), (waking, & was I a
tree),  (watching,  was  a  corona),  (was flux and shell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(stem/utter,    flicker/interference

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(where         the          second          person
appears, one      (ponders      the      body
consisting of                                     swarm
or mostly empty space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(for   I   slept   on   four   legs,   animated   and),
(estranged,    each    memory),    (    of    motion
r         e          p           e          a           t          e          d
itself, as motion),

(was there a dim, skin), (were the rinds
growing, dusk

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