Table of Contents
Introduction ix
There Are Other Things I Want to Explain but They Are Mysteries 1
The World Is Beautiful but You Are Not in It 2
If My Housemate Fucks with Me I Would Get So Real (Audition Tape Take 1) 4
Face Cathedral 6
Poem for the June Eclipse 8
Miss Black America 10
Poem Made of Chewed-Up Nicorette from the Garbage in Front of Kate Hudson's House 11
Real Housewife Defends Herself in Front of a Live Studio Audience 13
How to Piss in Public and Maintain Femininity 15
The Housecleaners, Early Wednesday Morning Downtown 18
Morgan What, Morgan Who? 20
Miss Black America 22
I'm Not Like the King of Black People 23
It Doesn't Get Cold Where We're From and We Weren't Taught 28
Real Housewife Considers Feminist Theory While Sketching Designs for Her Handbag Line 29
I Was Trotting Along and Suddenly 31
Boys, Boys, Boys 33
Poem Made of Empty Prescription Bottles from the Garbage in Front of Bill Murray's House 35
America This Is for You (Audition Tape Take 2) 38
Greetings from Struggle City 40
There Is Another World and I Am Better in It 49
In Search of Morgan, Season 3, Episode 24 51
On Getting Ones Groove Back 54
Miss Black America 56
Everyone Knows Where Art Comes from It Comes from the Store 57
Apology with Pearls On 60
Rest Stop / Fresno County Line / January 62
White Walls White People 64
Young, Sassy, and Black 66
Quiet Alcohol 67
On Children, How I Hate Them and Want to Corrupt Them, How You Know I Hate Them, and What That Could Mean 68
Miss Black America 70
I'd Rather Sink … Than Call Brad for Help! 71
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch 73
Hot Serpent in the City 78
Poem 80
Poem 81
Miss Black America 82
Their Grandmothers Never Did the Laundry 83
Epistolary Poem for Reader, Brother, Grandmother, Men (or, When I Say I Want to Spit You Up) 85
Look 89
Blessings, Injuries 91
Everything Is Bothering Me 92
Apology in Hopes of Men 98
Other People's Comfort Keeps Me Up at Night 100
Other People's Acknowledgments 105
