TO THE PUNK BRO WHO TOLD ME I HAD BRUTAL EYEBALLS

By Andrea Abi-Karam

TO THE PUNK BRO WHO TOLD ME I HAD BRUTAL EYEBALLS:

U R SUCH A WHINER. U FOLLOWED ME OUT OF THE PIT & SAID I LOOKED A T U IN THE EYES B 4 I PUNCHED U DIRECTLY IN THE STOMACH. IT WAS 100 DEGREES & DARK. IT COULD HAVE BEEN ANYONE. YR DUMB ROOMMATE OR YR DUMB FRIEND. U STEPPED CLOSER TO TELL ME I HAD BRUTAL EYEBALLS. OVER & OVER & SO THIS TIME I PUNCHED U IN THE STOMACH WITH MY HALF EMPTY 40OZ DIGGING THE CAP IN DEEP THRU TO YR KIDNEYS. LEAVING HIGHLIFE CAP RIDGES ON YR STUPID SHIRTLESS CAVED IN STOMACH UNTIL U PUKED ON YR OWN SHOES.

I HOPE YR GF LIKES THE BRUISES.

EXTRATRANSMISSION

Andrea Abi-Karam’s debut poetry collection, EXTRATRANSMISSION (Kelsey Street Press, 2019), takes on military exploitation of human and animal bodies, the scourge of bro culture, and the Uber-fication of urban space. Their forceful, often capslocked lines pursue a “poetry of directness” in opposition to the pervasive, unrippling “language of avoidance” that smooths over everyday potentials for confrontation. Employing repetition and polyvocality to move between contexts of contested embodiment, Abi-Karam gets at the problem of individual agency in global conflict and imperialism. "We live in a country that has mastered the art of using our brains against us. I look to poets who comprehend this and employ new vocabularies and forms to emblazon paths—new neural hallways lead to threshold decisions about how to live our day to day lives. Andrea Abi-Karam has written a singular and imperative text landing on a way to acquire our maximum potential as rebel beings who can kill coercion dead so we can move together 'beyond this one type of experience,' perhaps the most threatening, and frightening, act we can take as beings." —Stacy Szymaszek

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