Blue painted door, Paris

Roger Camp

electric hand (after CAConrad)

By Ivanna Baranova

Issue 38 • Fall 2018 • Poetry

2nd Place

Poetry 2018 Summer Contest

In conversation with CAConrad’s While Standing in Line for Death, Ivanna Baranova questions the limit of the ritual to “‘somaticize’ / safety.” I was drawn to the humor and restraint of this poem (which shows in moments like “two assholes / duking it out” and “rapt in pools of / masculine compulsion”) and how the use of parentheses creates the feeling that there’s always something more lurking beneath. It’s a thick moment, deconstructed with a real sense of curiosity.

– Franny Choi

i.

our so-called friend

is gonna murder

the 10pm catcaller

who sits

in the chlorinated

tub

splash splash

two assholes

duking it out

over their

perceived ownership

of pussy

ii.

“take notes for the poem”

iii.

when in water women

are the starfish vigilante

of the aquatic panopticon

(habit-turned-necessity)

hot jet corners

soaked thighs quiver

drip no no (no)

rapt in pools of

masculine compulsion

iv.

my cells shimmer like

Capricorn moon(stone)—

crystal on a ring around

the ring around

my fat femme finger

that is mine

all mine

v.

_____? (how many) rituals

enacted “somaticize”

safety?

_____? (how many) crystals

ingested “ritualize”

the body?

vi.

“your arms

look strong

like they could

punch someone”

i say

recalling

the time my

own arms failed me

and i couldn’t get away

sometimes

my electric hand

stays clenched in a fist

remembering

Ivanna Baranova

Ivanna Baranova is a Brooklyn-based poet. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Montreal Review of Books, Hobart, The Puritan, Poetry Is Dead, Peach Mag, Prism international, SAD Mag, Metatron (ÄLPHÄ), and elsewhere. In 2017, she earned a BA in Philosophy, Gender Studies, and Creative Writing from The University of British Columbia. In 2018, she was selected as a Brooklyn Poets Fellowship Finalist, and awarded the Adele Wiseman Endowment toward the Poetry Writing Studio at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

She currently works as a Poets House intern and is on the editorial team at Witch Craft Mag / Sad Spell Press and The Maynard.