Wound from the Mouth of a Wound

By torrin a. greathouse

A versatile missive written from the intersections of gender, disability, trauma, and survival.

“Some girls are not made,” torrin a. greathouse writes, “but spring from the dirt.” Guided by a devastatingly precise hand, Wound from the Mouth of a Wound—selected by Aimee Nezhukumatathil as the winner of the 2020 Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry—challenges a canon that decides what shades of beauty deserve to live in a poem. greathouse celebrates “buckteeth & ulcer.” She odes the pulp of a bedsore. She argues that the vestigial is not devoid of meaning, and in kinetic and vigorous language, she honors bodies the world too often wants dead.

These poems ache, but they do not surrender. They bleed, but they spit the blood in our eyes. Their imagery pulses on the page, fractal and fluid, blooming in a medley of forms: broken essays, haibun born of erasure, a sonnet meant to be read in the mirror. greathouse’s poetry demands more of language and those who wield it. “I’m still learning not to let a stranger speak / me into a funeral.”

Concrete and evocative, Wound from the Mouth of a Wound is a testament to persistence, even when the body is not allowed to thrive. greathouse—elegant, vicious, “a one-girl armageddon” draped in crushed velvet—teaches us that fragility is not synonymous with flaw.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Milkweed Editions
• Release date: Dec 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9781571317155

torrin a. greathouse

torrin a. greathouse is the author of Wound from the Mouth of a Wound. She is a transgender cripple-punk and MFA candidate at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of the chapbook boy/girl/ghost and assistant editor of The Shallow Ends. In 2020, they received fellowships from Zoeglossia and the University of Arizona Poetry Center. Her work is published or forthcoming in POETRY, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, and the Kenyon Review.

Book preview

Wound from the Mouth of a Wound

Wound from the Mouth of a Wound

POEMS

torrin a. greathouse

MILKWEED EDITIONS

© 2020, Text by torrin a. greathouse

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher: Milkweed Editions, 1011

Washington Avenue South, Suite 300, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415.

[phone]

milkweed.org

Published 2020 by Milkweed Editions

Printed in Canada

Cover design by Mary Austin Speaker

Cover art by Cael Lyons

20 21 22 23 24 5 4 3 2 1

First Edition

Milkweed Editions, an independent nonprofit publisher, gratefully acknowledges sustaining support from our Board of Directors; the Alan B. Slifka Foundation and its president, Riva Ariella Ritvo-Slifka; the Amazon Literary Partnership; the Ballard Spahr Foundation; Copper Nickel; the McKnight Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; the National Poetry Series; the Target Foundation; and other generous contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. Also, this activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. For a full listing of Milkweed Editions supporters, please visit milkweed.org.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Greathouse, Torrin A., author.

Title: Wound from the mouth of a wound : poems / Torrin A. Greathouse.

Description: First edition. | Minneapolis, Minnesota : Milkweed Editions, 2020. | Summary: Wound from the Mouth of the Wound was selected by Aimee Nezhukumatathil as the winner of the 2020 Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020028619 (print) | LCCN 2020028620 (ebook) | ISBN 9781571315274 (paperback ; acid-free paper) | ISBN 9781571317155 (ebook)

Subjects: LCGFT: Poetry.

Classification: LCC PS3607.R42873 W68 2021 (print) | LCC PS3607.R42873 (ebook) | DDC 811/.6--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020028619

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020028620

Milkweed Editions is committed to ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book production practices with this principle, and to reduce the impact of our operations in the environment. We are a member of the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the world’s endangered forests and conserve natural resources. Wound from the Mouth of a Wound was printed on acid-free 100% postconsumer-waste paper by Friesens Corporation.

for my crip kin,

my dis’ kin, for my trans siblings & elders,

& all those yet to arrive

CONTENTS

Medusa with the Head of Perseus

I.

Phlebotomy, as Told by the Blood

Metaphors for My Body on the Examination Table

Essay Fragment: Medical Model of Disability

When My Doctor First Tells Me I Am a Woman

On Examination/Dereliction

Hydrocele

Discovering My Gag Reflex, an Absence

There’s No Word in English for the First Rain of Any Season

II.

Burning Haibun

Ode to the First Time I Wore a Dress & My Mother Did Not Flinch

All I Ever Wanted to Be Was Nothing at All

That’s So Lame

Essay