#tender data

in an interview with thestranger.com, the author of mood swings is said by the article writer person that “When she readers her stuff aloud, she adopts the tone of a bored millennial ordering Burger King at a drive thru.” 

the poem mentioned specifically of ms McClure’s is “chiflada”, which, well, we were going to publish here ( http://issuu.com/davidblumenshine/docs/sp_print_edition_1v25 ) first. it is one of my personal all time favorite poems, and whatever

but i remember the second i got the email with the reply to my solicit for a poem for the print journal from ms McClure, and i recall reading the first like stanza or so, and it’s what, 8 pages long in what was to be our journal, tho in the Poor Claudia chapbook, it had a blue cover, forget the title, it was maybe four pages but whatever...

so i stopped reading internally. my partner was driving us to get fast food, and i asked her if i could read this out loud while we drove because it felt like it was going to be amazing. my partner at that time obliged and i read while she drove. we were both in shock at the beauty of the poem. we sat in the parking lot refusing to order food until the long poem was finished. not claiming thats whatever aesthetic McClure “has reclaimed” from “chiflada” “for her poems and persona,” but Monica was aware of that instance. she surely has forgotten being told such menial occurrances from a basic failing white guy, but it just made me laugh and tumblr was open and so i felt a whatever to type this story because no one will see this and my memory is bad enough to where doing so serves a personal purpose. 

for someone else

it’s so mature

like having your own stash of coke

and doing it moderately

to get ideas for your screenplay

Monica McClure