Mouth Breathing

Yusef Komunyakaa's I Apologize For The Eyes In My Head is one of my favorite collections. I selected it for this project and told one of the other writers I would let them borrow it. Unfortunately, I had previously let another writer borrow it and I don't remember whom. As it's $35 or more for it online, and well out of bookstores, I've subbed in the selection of "I Apologize For The Eyes In My Head" from his collection Neon Vernacular, which is also excellent.

After reading through the whole thing ad coming up with a few ideas, I decided to go back to the first one that struck me. The opening poem examines being introduced as a man. As I've recently written a couple of poems focused on my gender, I decided to take the idea somewhere slightly different.

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Speak Easy
Adam Stone

Introduce me first as a mouth
                                        a taker of air and
                                        a geyser of noise

My hands enter next though they are really just
                                                                       ambassadors of mouth
                                                                       working also for brain
which should be in charge
I should be known first as brain
but listen to how mouth leads
before brain counts the ballots

I am known less for my speech bubbles and
                       more for my bubbles of speech
                       an oversudsed washing machine
                       in a trite sitcom 
                       laughtracked and unfunny

No other part of my body can be seen
outside the shadow of my mouth

​I have a cast iron masseter
I have a closed end tongue