appealing

The Maynard
Spring 2020

Stephanie Yue Duhem
0:00
 
 

blue light

say blue light / say baba / say from the backseat / or say
from the backthroat
in your demure half-shorn mutish / or brutish
frankenstongue / your lintwistic portmanteau childese / or chinglish
(that’s child plus gah gah gah glitch) / (or china so frangible it’ll bah bah bah
break) / yes say ba ba ba / say
baba what is that blue light?

baba in the passenger seat says / i don’t see no blue light / there is no
blue light / stop
seeing light in the dark / stop
this obsession with bah bah bah blue / stop
embarrassing us in front of the driver please / our faces so lost
thank gah gah gah god
the headlights look out not in.

say bah bah bah but / say baba there is a blue light / say see? next to
the steering wheel or
no / you will not yet / know that word so / maybe just trace
a circle with your hands / o-
ver and over again / like / cupping the egg of a / gah gah gah godwit.

baba says / goddamn / says / there is no blue light / says / stop trailing lies
like gah gah gah gasoline on the street / says
do you want to walk bah bah bah back home on your feet / says
and don’t you dare cry.

the driver says nothing.

when baba learns to drive and speak english / years later he will say / sorry / i
did not know about

high beams or how / for years your dreams will be draped in blue / i
did not know how
to split infinitives / like tiny segments of road / i feed the car now / and i
did not know how
to stutter and still shine
a red white and blue light.