Graphic Poetry Project: Part 1
This is a sample from a project I’m currently working on that, much like my writing, combines poetry and comic books. This project will be my attempt to create a graphic poetry collection based on my manuscript “…hide behind me…” which was my thesis and which has had much success in individual poem publications.
Where my poetry tends to pull the comic book world into it, this project is an attempt to fuse the two worlds evenly. This sample is from VERY early in the project’s development, but still something I thought I’d share as I believe this project will come out to be something very special in the end. Enjoy.
(Note: This character is NOT Batman (the funky haircut probably gave that away. Ha!) He’s a lifelong criminal by the name of Iron Man Vasquez who, for a moment, tried to redeem himself by pretending to be a hero. The poems here reflect his thoughts as he looks back on his life in his dying moments.)
Artwork by Federico Zumel
Chewing the Bones of Teenage Love
In school together, she and I ain’t talked.
I was the big, mean demon her old man
told her would hurt her deep. He said I’d stalk
and rape and kill her. “That’s all his kind can
digest,” I heard him tell her once. “They pick
the pretty flowers just to watch them die.”
I stood on her front porch: a lummox—thick
and dumb and seventeen—and I just cried
because I knew, right then I knew, that all
the lineman muscles churning under my
shirt, all the boxing welts on my ribs, all
the sharp hellfire I toted round in my
bones…they had killed me long ago. Killed us.
With half a chance, I’d grind her into dust.
“Chewing the Bones of Teenage Love” appears in “Measure“
6 Responses to “Graphic Poetry Project: Part 1”
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This is incredible, first rate work. It deserves everything it has coming to it.
Absolutely fantastic! Can’t wait to see more!
The voice, the mood, the tone! I thoroughly enjoy this one
Magnificent timing and language.
This is wonderful. I would like to use this at the end of my unit on Romeo and Juliet. I think it has a powerful message voiced from the usually unheard inner male voice. Thanks!
Sure thing, Katherine. You can use it. I hope to be adding some new content to the site this week, so feel free to check back for more stuff.