Poem of the Week | March 29, 2021
“Dirty Talk” Liz Robbins
This week’s Poem of the Week is “Dirty Talk” by Liz Robbins!
Liz Robbins’ third collection, Freaked, won the Elixir Press Annual Poetry Award; her second collection, Play Button, won the Cider Press Review Book Award. Her poems have appeared in Adroit Journal, Beloit Poetry Journal, Denver Quarterly, Kenyon Review Online, and Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac; her poems are in recent issues of Five Points, Rattle, and Salamander. She lives in St. Augustine, Florida, and works as a poetry screener for Ploughshares.
Dirty Talk
Always cock, which implies
a saucy attitude.
Or dick, meaning jerk.
Always cunt, a mean woman,
ugly.
Or pussy, meaning fearful.
Never penis or vagina, clinical
terms suggesting too much
the impersonal.
We want it in your face. We don’t
want polite parlor talk.
We want low-down.
Penis and vagina reminds us
of when we were unsure,
innocent.
We don’t want purity. We want
someone who’s taking
responsibility   for what
they choose.
Or no.
We don’t want responsible, exactly.
But close. What we want is
a response. What we want is
close.
Down there. Responding.
You and me, together.
You and me. But not wholly.
Broken. In parts.
Playing our parts.
Author’s Note
Sex is a more brainy entertainment than we often give it credit for. Consider the layers some of us plow through before demonstrating a sex act. Sexual fantasy alone is a dense, private, highly-subjective exercise. So is slang, which has been hard to track throughout history, due to its nature of being spoken long before being recorded. This poem begins with slang terms—and with emotional associations to various labels we’ve given private parts; it expands to show how complex our expectations can be of sex acts with a partner. I’m currently working on a collection of poems in the voices of sex workers, and this is one of the pieces that steps outside individual narratives, tries to speak about the act more collectively, through shared language.
SEE THE ISSUE
SUGGESTED CONTENT
Poem of the Week
Mar 25 2024
“Prayer Meeting” by Michelle Bitting
“Prayer Meeting” by Michelle Bitting is our Poem of the Week. Michelle Bitting was short-listed for the 2023 CRAFT Character Sketch Challenge, the 2020 Montreal International Poetry Prize, and a… read more
Poem of the Week
Mar 18 2024
“Gone For Always” by James Braun
“Gone For Always” by James Braun is our Poem of the Week. James Braun’s work has appeared and is forthcoming in Fiction International, Puerto del Sol, DIAGRAM, Bayou Magazine, filling… read more
Poem of the Week
Mar 11 2024
“Snarge” by Brianna Steidle
“Snarge” by Brianna Steidle is our Poem of the Week. Brianna Steidle is a poet, translator, and dog trainer. She holds an MFA from The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins… read more