Matadora

By Sarah Gambito

With seriocomic tone, these elliptical lyrics reveal illusions and exclusions at the heart of America’s global narrative of economic “progress,” and the attendant loss of cultural identity and memory. At the same time, Matadora challenges traditional Fillipina gender norms, beginning with the title which feminizes a word and profession traditionally masculine.

New York (Sweet and Sour Sauce)

I (Asian girl) was eating pasta with a dancer (Asian girl) last night in front of the Asian-American tirade. She quoted a book of 144,000 blank pages and she said, sometimes do you feel crazy? I was biting off my chicken. I said let’s go through an exercise.

Someone is sleeping very peacefully in a bed next to you. Who is this person?

A sculptor (from LA he said just visiting) listened to us. He said I’m working on a 50 ft. bamboo thing. He said you should come by.

“Early in Sarah Gambito’s book, we learn that ‘You cannot be in two places at once.’ In fact, the personality presented in these poems (they are personal poems; that is to say, they have their own unique and consistent personality) seems to have come from Elsewhere, on the way to Everywhere.”—Keith Waldrop

Sarah Gambito holds degrees from The University of Virginia and The Creative Writing Program at Brown University. Her poems have appeared in such journals as The Iowa Review, The Antioch Review, The New Republic, Quarterly West and Fence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alice James Books
• Release date: Oct 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9781948579902

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