Artwork © Judson K. Evans

“I am not that Man”

to Kishwar Naheed,
who… once wrote
“I am not that Woman”

I am not that man whom you
dully sing about, bellowing before
innocent behinds, sobbing breasts,
I am not that man who burns
the ripe petals of your blossoms,
your castles of ember sands.
I am not that man, dealing
with pigs, dancing under red
lights, mutilating your bodies,
Ladies, I am not that man who
scathes you, undermines you,
silences you by the bullets of my
poetry, my bloody words.
I am not that man, sleeping
between tender breasts, then
waking you up to half-turned
blankets, your breathless sighs.
I don’t follow sexist banners,
Not that man to laugh at you,
to confuse your modesty with
immense stupidity.
I am not that man, following
your steps to home, sneaking
in when nights blind the light,
I am not that man, flanked
with hegemonic cants, biting
your strings, your charming voice…
Hey, no, no, I am not that man!

Ashish Dwivedi is an international student from India currently enrolled under an M.Phil. programme in English Literature at Swansea University (Wales, U.K.). Before this, he pursued an M.A. in English Literature and Language from the University of Lucknow. He calls himself a customized poet and critic: taking up issues central to my life and that around me, including the socio-cultural and natural environment he finds himself surrounded with.

Judson Evans is a full-time Instructor in the Liberal Arts department at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee where he has taught a range of courses, from a Poetry Workshop on haiku, prose poetry and haibun, to a course on theories of cave art and the role of the cave in ritual and philosophy. In 2007 he was chosen by John Yau as an Emerging Poet for The Academy of American Poets. He was one of the founding members of Off the Park Press, and published work in each of its three anthologies responding to provocative contemporary painters. His most recent work has been published in (print journals) Laurel Review, Folio, Volt; 1913: a journal of forms; and Green Mountains Review, and (online journals) White Whale Review and Amethyst Arsenic. He won The Phillip Booth Poetry Award from Salt Hill Review in 2013. He has collaborated with composers, such Mohammed Fairouz, Mart Epstein, and Rudolf Rojhan, who set several of his poems to music, as well as with choreographers, dancers, musicians and other poets, including Gale Batchelder, and videographers Nate Tucker and Ray Klimek.