20 December 2013

Renée Stout

Canto 4

I love how Bang makes me laugh

by using modernisms already outdated —

“Sir,” I said, “this is harsh” —

reminding me that “Make it new” is overrated

by history’s impassive

pace. These million doll souls indicted

for selecting “none of the above”

prove merely that good, bad, & neutral

all land you in hell, my love —

Limbo at best — where Gad! an inner circle

welcomes poets, “these honorific few”

whose swelldom includes not only Virgil

but Dante, too, while mewling

babes & sighing women

have nor harrowing nor fire to aspire to.

Had I Bang been

I’d’ve gone for 100% name swapping —

replaced these clichéd men with forgotten Amazons

starting

with Sor Juana, my latest hero.

Liberal education has so much explaining

to do

for flat out ignoring women’s minds

preferring instead to think of woman as emo,

as virago, as side saddle, as derived

from Adam’s rib,

as colony, as gossip, as pretty valentine,

as ditz, as nympho, as hysteric, as witch.

Begone, Homer!

Scam, Ovid

you dirty old man. The new order

comprises first Sappho, then Sor Juana

followed by Uhwudong & Engelbretsdotter

(pity about her name), also Enheduanna,

Aphra Behn & Emily Dickinson,

finish for now with Anna Akhmatova.

Yes, I admit, Dante’s list contains some,

e.g., Electra, Lavinia, . . . a smattering in the ranks

is worse than none.

Aristotle to Zeno, hie thee to the outer banks!

More aunties, fahgettabout uncs.

[inspired by Mary Jo Bang's translation of Dante Alighieri's Inferno]