{"id":4695,"date":"2022-11-02T21:44:53","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T21:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-the-words\/?page_id=4695"},"modified":"2024-08-07T18:53:09","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T18:53:09","slug":"wordplay-asa-benjamin","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/home-2\/the-words-november-2022\/wordplay-asa-benjamin\/","title":{"rendered":"Wordplay: Asa Benjamin"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Anna \u0160verclov\u00e1 ’23<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here at <\/span>The Words<\/span><\/i>, we want to showcase the exciting talents of our senior Creative Writing majors through a little something we like to call \u201cWordPlay.\u201d This month, we asked Asa Benjamin to share one of their poems.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asa Benjamin is a senior English (Creative Writing) major and Performance Design and Technologies minor. They have a soft spot for formed poetry (especially sestinas) and fantasy.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for sharing, Asa!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ship Speaks of Her Final Moments<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crash licked her way up me blood-hot.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

metal-epiderm my lungs spit backwards<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

              pushed you all out into the unknown<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

like a mother i birthed you forward<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

           through space, umbilical tether gravity<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They said I would collide, break all my bones to kiss that land. I asked \u201cDo you promise me?\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

they built me in a harbor-bay, a creaking<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

           knowing before the unknown, metal womb<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

shaping a silver knife a silver body <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

          but that was before i knew any of you<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

like so many rivets, dropped skittering <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

           in my aorta through all my arteries you<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

call your ship a woman so i became your<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

          woman. you touched me tool and virtue.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You set me to explore, you know. You always urged me answers.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

pilgrimage and pleasure court and funeral<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

           catalog and query nip and suck<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

nurture and witness anodized and bled<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

           succour and executioner killing and alive<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

cling your daughter\u2019s braids, your hands leavened<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            your trials in my belly, consummate your treaties<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

i clawed for news of your away missions and<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

           if the laundry ever got finished.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You cried into my liver as if I had any power to stop this. As if I would.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            something you haven\u2019t understood. you spoke me<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

alive. i am your convoy-versus-mother-spouseandchild<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

           i am your zenith and your prime. i am component<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and the whole. promise me life? then let me live blazing.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While you cried I wondered how it would feel to kiss the ground.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

hit me then, pretty and sailing, up the wind<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

          dash me to sand in your embrace and make it<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

good. make it good. make it<\/span><\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Anna \u0160verclov\u00e1 ’23 Here at The Words, we want to showcase the exciting talents of our senior Creative Writing majors through a little something we like to call \u201cWordPlay.\u201d This month, we asked Asa Benjamin to share one of their poems. Asa Benjamin is a senior English (Creative Writing) major and Performance Design and […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":913,"featured_media":0,"parent":4681,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4695","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/913"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4695"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7815,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4695\/revisions\/7815"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}