Fantasia for the man in blue / Tommye Blount.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blount, Tommye, author.

Contributor:

Laura Jan Meyerson Poetry Fund.

Language:

English

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

139 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Tribeca : Four Way Books, [2020]

Summary:

"An examination of a brutal America through the voices of its most vulnerable sons. In his debut collection, Fantasia for the Man in Blue, Tommye Blount orchestrates a chorus of distinct, unforgettable voices that speak to the experience of the black, queer body as a site of desire and violence. A black man's late-night encounter with a police officer - the titular "man in blue" - becomes an extended meditation on a dangerous, erotic fantasy. The late Luther Vandross, resurrected here in a suite of poems, addresses the contradiction between his public persona and a life spent largely in the closet: "It's a calling, this hunger / to sing for a love I'm too ashamed to want for myself." In "Aaron McKinney Cleans His Magnum," the convicted killer imagines the barrel of the gun he used to bludgeon Matthew Shepherd as an "infant's small mouth" as well as the "sad calculator" that was "built to subtract from and divide a town." In these and other poems, Blount viscerally captures the experience of the "other" and locates us squarely within these personae"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Fantasia for the Man in Blue p. 3

I

How Sweet this Great Land p. 7

Americana Elegy p. 9

My God, Lick Him Clean p. 11

The Button p. 22

The Purse Thieves p. 23

Historical Site p. 26

Late Show at the Americana p. 28

Framing Debra Shaw p. 35

Proscenium p. 38

The Laugh p. 40

Phonophobia p. 42

At the Mercury Theater p. 44

Blood Harmony p. 46

The Pool p. 50

II

Fantasia for the Man in Blue p. 55

Leroy Auditions for the Fame School p. 58

The Ballad of Bobby Blake p. 61

Castro Supreme Finally Speaks p. 63

Ode to Chub Porn p. 66

Not an Elegy for Erik Rhodes p. 68

Diesel Washington Demonstrates The Bully p. 70

Thug on Thug p. 71

Are you clean p. 73

Bareback Aubade with the Dog p. 75

And the dog comes back p. 77

The Runts p. 79

Lycanthropy p. 81

Palmer Park p. 83

The bug p. 85

Fable of the Beast p. 86

Niggas' Revenge p. 95

Arcane Torso on Grindr p. 96

The Weather, the Weather p. 97

What sort of bird p. 98

III

Fantasia for the Man in Blue p. 103

Icarus Does the Dishes p. 105

The Suit p. 107

Geppetto's Lament p. 108

Of a Wicked Boy p. 109

Aaron McKinney Cleans His Magnum p. 111

Of his daughter's hair p. 112

Portrait of My Father p. 114

Leda p. 116

Hardheaded Aubade p. 118

The Bug Chaser p. 119

The Singing Head of Orpheus p. 121

Do you have anything p. 123

IV

Dear Latrice Royale p. 127

The Lady Chablis as Herself p. 128

Rest Stop in Rawsonville, Michigan p. 129

The Hunger of Luther Vandross p. 131

Luther Vandross Sings Bowie p. 132

Luther Dreams of Aretha Franklin's Gown p. 134

Bling Elegy p. 136

Fantasia for the Man in Blue p. 138.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Laura Jan Meyerson Poetry Fund.

ISBN:

9781945588495

1945588497

OCLC:

1122682210

Publisher Number:

99984216842