Close Talking

Connor and Jack discuss Sasha Banks' poem, america MINE from her collection of the same name. They start by examining some of the poem's formal elements like its lack of traditional punctuation, and quickly jump to big themes like how the idea of vengeance is transformed in the poem and the contested symbol of the American flag is used. Read the full poem below, or here: http://thecollagist.com/the-collagist/2016/8/27/america-mine.html america MINE By: Sasha Banks the spit upon this/country's flag is mine and/I do/not weep at it/consider the twisted shape of grief about/the mouth upon learning the beast/under the bed has always been your country/careful, citizen/this nation will name you/daughter/while its tongue/sucks the muscle from every dark body/you have loved to the edge of this/vanished second/I let the rage be/like water/this time/drinking and drinking until/my darkness marries/my eyes to blindness/and I am/led by the ghosts still/awake/in the soil/still/thirsty from/below/the fear/is under my heal