Language is perpetually put to the service of meaning-making or the illusion thereof. This common approach toward instrumental communication—first and foremost—is even older than our marketplace modernity which habitually demands words to function as info-bits, soundbites, inventory. In the framing of poetry, however, though never dissolved, the expectations of immediate meaning is put to the background as the texture, associations and happy chaos of words are made front and center. In Khadijah Queen’s new poem, Deleted Characters, I marvel at the way her elemental list of articles and nouns unleashes a universe of absurd, humorous, disturbing phrases. The artificiality and artfulness of (her) language astounds. The plausibility of these characters may be more or less realistic but their actual stage exists inside the endlessness of semantics itself, certainly. This happens thanks to Queen’s seeming infinite fecundity to create new, dizzy combinations; to explode and undermine our stock, workaday associations. Inevitably, the poem tells us of our time with its winks and nods to contemporary slang and jargon, but also the awesome possibility that always awaits anyone trapped as we all are by the confines of discourse. That these “characters” (which are not characters) are themselves “deleted,” as the title tells us, simultaneously relieves and elegizes such a busy imagination.
—Adam Fitzgerald, Poetry Editor
DELETED CHARACTERS
THE POPULARITY CONTEST
THE HECTIC TED TALK
THE BLACK FARMERS
THE FALSE CHANTERELLE
THE RUINED CROPS
THE BUTTERCUP ANARCHIST
THE CONTINUOUS NON-INDICTMENT
THE CAGEY VETERAN
THE IRONIC ABSOLUTISM
THE POST TRAUMATIC PATRIOT
THE SENIOR HOUSING COMPLEX
THE JAUNTY HUMIDIFIER
THE DOOR CRASHING DEER
THE PREGNANT MUD WRESTLER
THE OVERDONE GEL MANICURE
THE STYLISH COUCH COVER
THE ANONYMOUS COSPLAYER
THE CAREFUL OBSESSION
THE TEXTURED PAINTING
THE PRESSED HAIR
THE WILTED FLORAL ARRANGEMENT
THE LIMP KALE
THE SLAYED STANS
THE OCD COKEHEAD
THE PERFECT DATING PROFILE
THE SUPER LONG WIFI PASSWORD
THE FROG-THROATED BOOTLEGGER
THE BUMPED UP BONUS
THE BORROWED VACUUM
THE IMAGINARY TIME WARP
THE MEMORY OF ASSASSINATION
THE WANNABE IP MAN
THE DILAPIDATED COLONIAL
THE WINK TO ELIOT
THE KIERA KNIGHTLEY HATER
THE LORD OF NO PANTS
THE TRANSLATED SPECTACLE
THE ENDLESS MONOPOLY GAME
THE FAIR WARNING
THE FLAT EARTH THEORY
THE RESIDENT PARKING
THE INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION PLAN
THE FARTHING FLINGER
THE MOODY CIRCLE K CASHIER
THE CLANDESTINE TECHNICIAN
THE 4-IN-1 BUNDLE
THE BOSSY TODDLER
THE LOOP-DE-LOOP PANCAKE FLIPPER
THE BLANK ANALOGY
THE SHO YOU RIGHT
THE CONVULSIVE FRAILTY
THE KLUTZY WUNDERKIND
THE MINT JULEP
THE BURNT BISCUIT
THE KHAKI SHORTS
THE SLAPHAPPY CENTURION
THE MODERN CHANGELING
THE FROWSY ASSISTANT
THE PERMISSIVE GALAXY
THE PAUSED GENERATION
THE FAILED ITERATION
THE SHIT SHOW
THE BAG OF NASTY CAT TREATS
THE ILL-FREQUENTED BISTRO
THE POPULAR SANDBOX
THE TEPID SWAMP
THE WATERY EYE OF A STRANGER
THE SARTRE APOLOGIST
THE CORNERED LILAC
THE BLINGED-OUT TRANSPARENCY
THE IMPOTENT MANIFESTO
THE MARTINET LOUNGE SINGER
THE LAST THIN MINT
THE NEGLECTED SUBLIME
THE TWICE-THRIFTED SOFABED
THE SINGLE ADIRONDACK CHAIR IN WINTER
