A feminine investigation of inner and outer
landscapes, poking at the juncture between self-awareness and anxiety
in contemporary U.S. culture. "here you can look for yourself"
what we are really looking at [at pictures]
something needs correcting right now
remember she says nothing she has
actually said nothing, zero, nada,
she is completely silent
she is mining she
moves her delicate white-gloved mouse-hands in
somewhat pathetically overblown gestures
oh, you know the kind of thing I mean
pulling herself up a rope of air, frowning
dramatically, flicking the sweat off her
brow, blowing the hair, up, silently
from her eyes and seeming to struggle
(just seeming to struggle, her motor skills are superior)
seeming to say, "Am I moving?"
but we now know better
Jo Ann Wasserman's writing has appeared in journals including The
World, Grand Street, Prosodia, and Blue Book. She worked
for the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church for five years; and is
now the managing editor of How2, an online journal of women's
innovative writing. Wasserman's other chapbook is what counts as
proof (Sugar Books, 1999).
