Defamiliar

The oral cavity as a container to deposit
round lumps of grapes,
the jaw turning on hinges
– crush, clamp shut –;
the body as a locus of defamiliarization,
the limbs splitting apart into
smaller multi-jointed manipulators at the ends.

Issue 8

https://manyworlds.place/issue-8/bogi-takacs/

by Bogi Takács


The oral cavity as a container to deposit
round lumps of grapes,
the jaw turning on hinges
– crush, clamp shut –;
the body as a locus of defamiliarization,
the limbs splitting apart into
smaller multi-jointed manipulators at the ends.

Science fact, science fantasy;
a moral requirement to maintain
a relationship with human experience,
a clinging, a flying tackle
in the manner of American sports.

The body as ideal, idol, certification –
diagnostic approval, health parameters,
appendages as receptacles of hurt,
wellbeing a lack of adversity rather than
a confetti-whirling spectacle.

Expectations to relate in an invariant fashion
when even a bag of grocery-store fruit can vary
in taste and texture;
expectations to be relatable likewise.
Human as per your definition,

the familiar enforceable,
the unfamiliar exoticized,

– speaking endlessly speaking –
for the alien words
to counterbalance it all.

/end/


Bogi Takács (e/em/eir/emself or they) has been working on a series of poems lately titled “Jobs for Magical People (That Do Not Involve the Military)” inspired by the Israeli invasion of Gaza - however, this poem is not a part of the series. Still, it is offered in the same spirit of solidarity. Bogi is a Hungarian Jewish immigrant to the US and an intersex trans person; eir poetry collection Algorithmic Shapeshifting is available from Aqueduct Press. You can find Bogi as bogiperson on a variety of social media; these days most frequently on Bluesky and Patreon.