Do not depend on speech to be felt.

Remember too that the eyes are not flesh,

That crisis is initiated by the absence of witness,

That Orpheus, in time, became nothing

But a lying-ass song

Sung for the woman he failed.

NOTES

Notes, references, and inspirations for the poems can be found online at http://terrancehayes.com/notes-drawn/.

© Victoria Smith

Terrance Hayes is the author of Lighthead (Penguin, 2010), winner of the 2010 National Book Award, and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His other books are Wind in a Box (Penguin, 2006), Hip Logic (Penguin, 2002), and Muscular Music (Tia Chucha Press, 1999). His honors include a Whiting Writers’ Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a MacArthur Fellowship.

1The poem’s title and section titles are taken from Jacob Abbott’s 1871 book Gentle Measures in the Management and Training of the Young; or, The Principles on Which a Firm Parental Authority May Be Established and Maintained, Without Violence or Anger, and the Right Development of the Moral and Mental Capacities Be Promoted by Methods in Harmony with the Structure and the Characteristics of the Juvenile Mind.

2 Oh, I’m a good old Rebel soldier, now that’s just what I am;

For this “Fair Land of Freedom” I do not give a damn!

I’m glad I fought against it, I only wish we’d won,

And I don’t want no pardon for anything I done.

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