FreezeRay:  Poetry With A Pop
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Shelley Valdez

​the goddess of growl and radical vulnerability
wears knee pads and rips out my spine


                                                                                  “There’s a party and we’re all going
                                                                                   And we’re all growing up”

                                                                                  - Mitski

is there anything better than        your body?      pearlescent?
your body?           electric?             your body?     crushed little star?

there is an etiquette to the way
we can determine         devotion          the way

we can lend our mouths                        in a crowd

not the timid concert wooooo!
or the polite little league hoot

what’s right is the way
every song warrants a wail

barreling out from your chest
through the base of your throat

                     both riot
                     and reverence        at once

the woman onstage
commands the room
with her posture

poised and sincere

             knows exactly what to do
             with her hands

she keeps her gaze weighted
and deliberate

she turns her voice
committed and precise

she emerges in
a neutral shirt

a sensible skirt
and        leggings?     no--
                                     kneepads!
                                     for when she needs to grace
                                     the floor

intimate and surprising,
determined and severe,

she gives us a fugue state
we can jump to

demands
honest listening

keeps us caught
in the twist of her wrist

           see this?
           she made it             from scratch!

we’ve heard these songs
in the thick of it

           turned them over in our throats
           when we’re alone

we all came here            burdened
      touch-starved             and sinking

quarter-life crisis
at our necks

but here,

we are cowboy congregation
washing machine rattle
pink lights in the dark

          crackling          and fluorescent

and how easily
we give each other               permission!

how we learn to cherish
our screams

hearts swelling
and irreverent
and

            already making
            their way
                                     through our teeth

Shelley Valdez is a queer Filipino-American writer, artist, editor, and performer from California's Bay Area. Her work has won multiple prizes, and has been published by poets.org, The Best Emerging Poets of California, Quiet Lightning, and elsewhere. Mostly, she wants to tell good stories, give good love, and make good art.
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