1 Poem From “That I Want”

Ava Hofmann

The poem is a phrase with all of its words crossed out. The words beneath the cross-outs are still readable, but there are new words written next to the old, replacing them. Some of these new, revised words are themselves crossed out and replaced—and those new new words, and so on. In a few places, there is a mark indicating where a new phrase should be inserted—and these inserts may also be revised, deleted, expanded upon, etc. The result is a mass of words growing from a central sentence with multiple paths through it, permutations and combinations of revisions. These are a few of these paths:

andrew hofmann
andrew harold hofmann
you named him andrew harold hofmann
the state named him andrew harold hofmann
nobody named him andrew harold hofmann

you named this body andrew harold hofmann
you named this body andrew, half-written in a public document
you named this body andrew, half-written in a shameful law
you named this body andrew, half-written in a shameful scripture

you named this language andrew harold hofmann
the state named this language andrew harold hofmann
the state named this politics andrew harold hofmann

i named him andy hofmann
i named this body andy hofmann
i named this body candy hotman
i named this body felicity hotman
i named this body felicity half-man
i named this body felicity hofmann
i named this body eve hofmann
i named this body eva hofmann
i named this body ava hofmann
i named this body ava semptember hofmann
i named this language ava september hofmann
i named this politics ava september hofmann
i named this girl ava september hofmann

i named this body ava september half-man
i named this body ava september half-human
i named this body ava september half-written
i named this body ava september, half-written in a public document
i named this body ava september, half-written in a shameful document
i named this body ava september, half-written in a private law
i named this body ava semptember, half-written in a private scripture
i named this body ava semptember, half-written in a public insurrection
i named this girl ava september, half-written in a private insurrection