Commando

E'mon Lauren, E'mon Lauren McGee

• Publisher: Haymarket Books
• Year: 2017
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781608469444
• Subtopic: American Poetry
• Index: Literature

E’mon Lauren’s poems take artifacts, language, and ephemera from life on Chicago’s Southside and Westside to create a manifesto of survival and growth. These poems from Chicago’s first Youth Poet Laureate grapple with sexism, racism, love, and class with a style that announces Lauren as a poet to watch.

Commando is an aesthetic stick up, hallelujahs in a handbag with a handgun. The first collection from the city's first youth poet laureate is a manifesto for a solider at war.

Commando Manifesto

**to be completely bare, openness can be a form of protection too

chicago, the block and the hood - environment controlled by masculinity

a lot of times as womyn we use our bareness, vulnerability to survive

we use our bodies, hearts on our arms to survive and be who the fuck we are**

i wear my heart on my sleeves

i don’t wear them much

chicago rips them right off of ya

so i like to get naked

now i’m a chested tube top

left my shoulders of skyscrapers open

ready for a kiss

ready for a blow

a job i can finish

Mom calls me a clever girl

said i would figure it out

taught me how to get out and be open

so i strip

gave niggas/men what they been asking for

kept plenty of blade in my tongue

might have knees that make pain or take it away

i learned my place and made it a throne

i fuck royally

turned my bed into a mauseoleum of offerings

my body is a sacrifice of my winnings

my trophies out in the open

who the fuck should i lay bare other than myself

i choose

to be commando

ready for action

ready to fight

for my land is mine

and it’s still rich

and still ours

me

and whoever i choose to be

with

for whatever reason

some call it a weak move

a vulnerable ventra card

a roadmap of all my soft spots

here is where i plant my flag

might’ve be a pitstop for niggas who needed a home too

chicago’s bosom been sagging on them for a while now

so i give mine

cook some meals

roll some blunts and fuck for free

cuz that love shit costs nowadays

ain’t much here up for profit anyway

but people find a way

use my name

try to turn me into gentrified zone

throw some good words around me

add a splash of color

give me a stage and say work

bitch

i add the work

bitch

some crack music

some real blk ruthless

grind my pretty and talk real well

deposit my dialects

spit shine th...

Table of contents

• Commando
• Speak
• Mary Lou
• My Cousin Called Those Redbone Girls 'Milli Vanillies'
• Chica-a-go
• 79th Be The Catwalk.
• The Etymology of "CHUUCH!"
• The Etymology of a Blk Girl's Name or Being Tongue Tied During Sex
• Last Name
• Micros and Aggression
• Ode to Saggy Titties
• Ode to Eczema
• Ode to Pubes
• A Window-Shopping-Ass-Nigga
• (Re)cycle
• Sanctuary of Heathens
• Preamble
• The Womb's Prayer
• Mother's Day?
• Dialogue
• Blk Ars
• Commando Manifesto