Wild Life E-Book

James McDermott

• Herausgeber: Nine Arches Press
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 36

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Wild Life by James McDermott explores the nature of queerness, the queerness of nature, and the queerness of 'natural' masculinity. In bold poems that root themselves firmly in the coastal landscapes of North Norfolk, a vivid and radical dialogue between nature, sexuality and self-discovery emerges. McDermott brings a lyrical physicality to poetry which focuses on the body, desire, shame, and tenderness, creation and re-creation, and where there is 'everything always opening / everything always coming out'. These poems skilfully graft and touch, draw parallels between moments of transformation in the many kinds of ecosystems we exist in – whether outside and between woodland, shoreline and skyline, where the wildlife will 'see me as just another animal', or in human interactions in schools, gyms, and pubs where ideas of manhood, self, and society's expectations collide. Like the coastal spaces where McDermott finds an innate connection, Wild Life identifies that which is fluid and constantly changing – and that nature itself isn't afraid of being colourful, excessive, too much.

Leseprobe

Wild Life

Wild Life

James McDermott

ISBN: 978-1-913437-70-1

eISBN: 978-1-913437-71-8

Copyright © James McDermott, 2023.

Cover artwork: layout by Jane Commane, image © Boycey (Thornden on the North Norfolk coast) via  istock.com.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, recorded or mechanical, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

James McDermott has asserted his right under Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

First published June 2023 by:

Nine Arches Press

Unit 14, Sir Frank Whittle Business Centre,

Great Central Way, Rugby.

CV21 3XH

United Kingdom

www.ninearchespress.com

Printed on recycled paper in the United Kingdom by: Imprint Digital

Nine Arches Press is supported using public funding by Arts Council England.

Contents

Closet

Joe

Intestines

Seed

The Weight

Development

Ash

Section Twenty Eight

The Red Forest

School Mates

Shame’s Stone

Recentre

To Camp

Self-Graft

My Queer Mind Goes for a Walk

Roadkill

Protect the Beautiful Landscape

How To Care For Your Pansies

Stinkhorn

Wild Flowers

Rucreation

How Queer I Live on Norfolk Coast

Burrow

We’re Animals

Killing It

Self-Harm

The Comedy of Masculinity

Steam Room

Gym Boys

Straitjacket

Masculinity is a Drag

Shaggy

This Gay Club is my Church

Queen

Mince

Queer Time

Grind

Sand/Sea

Mutual

Nuts and Bolts

Birdcage

Spill

Heart Attack

Gaysthetics

Tickled Pink

Outsiders

Gardening

Acknowledgements and Notes

Thanks

About the author and this book

Closet

an average person’s skin covers two square

metres   the standard height of a closet

age six   I open Mum’s wardrobe door to

a den of furs   coven of black dresses

yellow brick road of snakeskin shoes   I gaze

into caves of high heels   eyes   see me   wink

I find myself sliding into a bruise

-plum dress   I turn my lips wound-red   my eyes

black   blue   in the mirror   I see father

appear   kick off my heels   rub out my face

tear at my frock   skin my new-born body

alive   trying to find muscle beneath

Joe

I remember being thirteen and Joe

when your closet opened at school   I was

the first to grab you like cigarettes

smoke with you behind bins   to mark your flesh

with fag   the first to touch hairs on your head

as dark as shame   as chocolate   I was

the one who kept calling you queer as I

wanted to scream that word out loud   that word

I was too clench-fisted to brand myself

in case I became as disgraceful as having

to wear shorts from lost property   I gobbed

on you to hide from lads who spat me out

when I emerged   you’d left by then   I can’t

shake the taste of your hair out of my mind

Intestines

September 3rd 2005   ten past twelve   period four

I spew my guts on the school sports-hall floor

my intestines are athletic

they move food with a wave-like pattern

of muscular actions   peristalsis

I know what I want derives from the Greek

my thoughts   long hollowed coiled tubes

that lead to the anus   fit boys

call me faggot   a type of food

the intestines absorb the nutrients

then force out waste into the rectum

where nerves create sensations that make you

feel like a shit   but I cannot pass

it gathers in the stomach   my second brain

it makes me bottom heavy   shuttlecock

it piles until it fills my liver   heart

lungs   oesophagus   oral cavity

it makes me sick

humans breathe about twenty-five thousand times a day

humans are the only animal to blush

Seed

I am thirteen when at the urinals a boy

brushes my hand with his

then gestures with his head

to the cubicles

I want

to go in there with him

but tremor at being

caught in the act

I sweat that he might give

me HIV

I sweat that he might take

my phone   wallet   my life

holding it in

my hand like a knife

I shake wishing

I wouldn’t waste my youth thinking

every boy who wants me   wants to hurt me

when he might just want me

or maybe   I am not scared of the boy

but scared of having a body that wants

to do things with other boys’

bodies

he zips his fly up quick   flees

leaves me gripping my manhood   small as

a seedling   waiting to be