Melania Luisa Marte – He Says, [Video]

By Button Poetry

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Melania Luisa Marte, performing at Button Poetry Live, August 2019.

About Button:

Button Poetry is committed to developing a coherent and effective system of production, distribution, promotion and fundraising for spoken word and performance poetry.

We seek to showcase the power and diversity of voices in our community. By encouraging and broadcasting the best and brightest performance poets of today, we hope to broaden poetry’s audience, to expand its reach and develop a greater level of cultural appreciation for the art form.

Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)

0:02
He says I hate men.
0:06
That I speak of them in crude tongue.
0:09
That I know too much with having experienced very little.
0:12
That I am a hungry hunter cowering at the sight of that which I spend
0:16
a lifetime seeking.
0:19
That even after I’m invited in to eat, I act as if I’ve never been fed before.
0:24
That I only pretend to be full out of spite.
0:27
That the journey has turned me bitter and lonely,
0:30
a sad kind of savagery.
0:32
He says I should write him a love poem.
0:38
That he only hears poetry in me when I’m growling out in pain.
0:43
That I should drop this penetrating gaze.
0:46
Melt this chip off my shoulder.
0:48
Pretend that men don’t have a history of ruining worlds.
0:52
Pretend men aren’t the greatest killers of women.
0:56
Pretend they haven’t been accustomed to silencing us.
0:59
Pretend there isn’t tradition in the way my voice shakes
1:02
in his presence.
1:04
Like I haven’t just learned to speak.
1:06
Like 40 years of freedom makes up for all that has died inside of me.
1:09
Pretend I don’t carry generations of martyred women in me,
1:13
calloused and blistered,
1:15
ripping through barricades of fragile machismo,
1:18
the mental chains, surviving trauma, scars that don’t heal but learn to mend,
1:23
stitching itself into a vengeful spell,
1:25
using tools that bind blindly without recourse,
1:28
the knife my grandmother used on her rapist,
1:31
the taxi money my mother used to flee my father.
1:34
Speak of love and men
1:36
and not have it leave a sour taste in my mouth.
1:38
Let it be less salty.
1:39
Let it be sweet.
1:41
Let it be glorious.
1:42
Let it be a warm sunshine after the hurricane.
1:45
Let it be my mother’s second chance at love.
1:48
The way my stepfather and her have grown old in unison.
1:51
A back rub that lowers your blood pressure or mends your ache
1:55
reminds the body that it is alive and here and loved.
2:00
Speak of love and let it be your favorite word in a poem.
2:06
So no, I won’t write you a love poem.
2:11
I’ll write this shit for me.
2:13
(cheers and applause)

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This post was previously published on YouTube.

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