Akiva Reads

by Franny Choi

Rating poetry is hard. I still have the suspicion that when I don't get it or think it's silly/pretentious/being overly obscure on purpose it's because I'm not interrogating the text from the correct perspective. But hey, that's my issue.

Here are the ones that really worked for me:

• "Glossary of Terms," especially that I could go back and reference it and feel like I was getting another layer out of some of the other poems. Also some of the individual bits, like "Star" x "Dreams of being:" "reached".

• "A Brief History of Cyborgs" - repetition used v well

• "Afterlife"

• "Perchance to Dream"

• "Chi," though I don't know the source material (Chobits). Would rec reading the third section aloud, if just to yourself.

• "Chatroulette"

• "Turing Test_Love" - especially

  remember / all humans / are cyborgs / all cyborgs / are sharp shards of sky / wrapped in meat / be delicate / as you approach this subject / not all humans are ready / to call themselves / glass stalactites / pissing the bed / remember / they love their blood / even as they retch / at the smell of it

  and

  remember / where all that silicon comes from / for the ocean so loved / the quartz / feldspar / the tiny homes of tiny creatures / that she ground them / into sand / to keep them close / to kiss them with / well / I suppose you would call it / a mouth

  See also "Glossary of Terms"!

• "Solitude"

• many but not all parts of "Perihelion: A History of Touch"

(Choi is queer, but this book only talks about straight relationships & sexuality.)