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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ALL THE MUSIC AND ARTWORK ON THIS WEBSITE IS DISPLAYED UNDER A
CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE
LARISSA SHMAILO
Personal
I want to know
what makes you
tick.
I want to know
what makes you
fickle; I want to know
what makes you stick.
Tell me
which ion propels you
which soothsayer spells you
which folksinger trills you
which hardwood distills you
which downward dog twists you
which protest resists you
which neural net fires you
which siren desires you
which villennelle sings you
which jailbreaker springs you
which Uncle Sam wants you
which calculus daunts you
which lullaby lulls you
which confidence gulls you
which apple you’ll bite from
which hither you’ll welcome
what
makes
me
forget the right answers
consult necromancers
allow the forbidden
ignore the guilt ridden
unlearn all the learning
embrace this new burning
to know
what
makes you
tick.
I want to know
what makes you
tick.
I want to know
what makes you
fickle; I want to know
what makes you stick.
Tell me
which ion propels you
which soothsayer spells you
which folksinger trills you
which hardwood distills you
which downward dog twists you
which protest resists you
which neural net fires you
which siren desires you
which villennelle sings you
which jailbreaker springs you
which Uncle Sam wants you
which calculus daunts you
which lullaby lulls you
which confidence gulls you
which apple you’ll bite from
which hither you’ll welcome
what
makes
me
forget the right answers
consult necromancers
allow the forbidden
ignore the guilt ridden
unlearn all the learning
embrace this new burning
to know
what
makes you
tick.
Warsaw Ghetto
I am the Warsaw Ghetto
I am the underground railroad
I am a hero
I am the people who sang songs
Who said the Lord's prayer and the
Sh'ma Yisrael
As the Nazis led them to the gas
chamber.
I am a five year old girl in Jim Crow
Mississippi going to school
I am Rosa Parks: I stand before the
policeman
Before his club and his gun
And I say: no.
You can't have mine
No.
They tortured me and I confessed, I
couldn't help it
They put electrodes on my ---
And I screamed
I told them everything they wanted to
hear
But I I I never believed them
I never believed their lies
I always believed in love
Could see, in the distance, the light
And wait---I know it will come
For help.
I am a survivor
Of Mama's torture
And Daddy's rape
At age one
Age two
Age three
And now
I survived the selfish fondlings
The inspection of my genitals
The picking, groping hands
The gangbang
The lies
I survived the prostitution
The mutilation and sedation
The betrayal and attempted murder of
my soul.
Warsaw -2
Don't tell me there is no God.
Who else helped me?
It wasn't you.
I called on God to help me.
There was no one else:
No mother
No father
No teacher
No preacher
No Rabbi
No doctor
No friend.
My enemies were powerful
Like Hitler and the Ghetto
But I held out
And when I tried to collaborate,
wanting to die,
When I tried to surrender
I couldn't do it.
I had to stand up
Had to fight
No matter how many times they
Knocked me down
Called me crazy
Made me cry.
In the Ghetto
In the sewers
There is a record
A diary like mine
Of people who loved
Of people who fought
Of people who fought and won
No matter what anybody says.
I am the Warsaw Ghetto
I am the underground railroad
I am a hero
I am the people who sang songs
Who said the Lord's prayer and the
Sh'ma Yisrael
As the Nazis led them to the gas
chamber.
I am a five year old girl in Jim Crow
Mississippi going to school
I am Rosa Parks: I stand before the
policeman
Before his club and his gun
And I say: no.
You can't have mine
No.
They tortured me and I confessed, I
couldn't help it
They put electrodes on my ---
And I screamed
I told them everything they wanted to
hear
But I I I never believed them
I never believed their lies
I always believed in love
Could see, in the distance, the light
And wait---I know it will come
For help.
I am a survivor
Of Mama's torture
And Daddy's rape
At age one
Age two
Age three
And now
I survived the selfish fondlings
The inspection of my genitals
The picking, groping hands
The gangbang
The lies
I survived the prostitution
The mutilation and sedation
The betrayal and attempted murder of
my soul.
Warsaw -2
Don't tell me there is no God.
Who else helped me?
It wasn't you.
I called on God to help me.
There was no one else:
No mother
No father
No teacher
No preacher
No Rabbi
No doctor
No friend.
My enemies were powerful
Like Hitler and the Ghetto
But I held out
And when I tried to collaborate,
wanting to die,
When I tried to surrender
I couldn't do it.
I had to stand up
Had to fight
No matter how many times they
Knocked me down
Called me crazy
Made me cry.
In the Ghetto
In the sewers
There is a record
A diary like mine
Of people who loved
Of people who fought
Of people who fought and won
No matter what anybody says.
Larissa Shmailo’s new chapbook is
A Cure for Suicide (Cervena Barva
Press 2008), and new poetry CD is
Exorcism (SongCrew 2008).
Larissa has been published in
Barrow Street , Fulcrum,
Rattapallax, Drunken Boat, and
many other publications. Larissa
translated the Russian Futurist
opera Victory over the Sun by A.
Kruchenych; a DVD of the original
English-language production is
part of the collection of the New
York Museum of Modern Art. She
also contributed translations to the
anthology Contemporary Russian
Poetry published by Dalkey
Archive Press. Larissa is a director
of TWiN Poetry, an informal
international collective of recording
poets and their listeners, a public
coordinator for the annual
Fulcrum, and a contributing editor
for BigCityLit.com. Her first poetry
CD, The No-Net World (SongCrew
2006) is frequently heard on radio
and Internet broadcasts. Larissa is
listed in the Poetry Kit Who’s Who
in poetry. Visit Larissa at http:
//www.myspace.
com/larissashmailoexorcism
A Cure for Suicide (Cervena Barva
Press 2008), and new poetry CD is
Exorcism (SongCrew 2008).
Larissa has been published in
Barrow Street , Fulcrum,
Rattapallax, Drunken Boat, and
many other publications. Larissa
translated the Russian Futurist
opera Victory over the Sun by A.
Kruchenych; a DVD of the original
English-language production is
part of the collection of the New
York Museum of Modern Art. She
also contributed translations to the
anthology Contemporary Russian
Poetry published by Dalkey
Archive Press. Larissa is a director
of TWiN Poetry, an informal
international collective of recording
poets and their listeners, a public
coordinator for the annual
Fulcrum, and a contributing editor
for BigCityLit.com. Her first poetry
CD, The No-Net World (SongCrew
2006) is frequently heard on radio
and Internet broadcasts. Larissa is
listed in the Poetry Kit Who’s Who
in poetry. Visit Larissa at http:
//www.myspace.
com/larissashmailoexorcism
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