A poem a day in April from Rutgers English PhD students and friends.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

"Always Already"

nobody wants
to say it
let alone write it

in class each time
we chime
really really!
to extend
the professor's joke

but how else to say
histories are dodgy
and breathing
and slip like frogs
from the hands

though you know
it'd been there
and will really
ribbit return?

2 comments:

  1. My "wtf" is in response to "always already" itself, which your ribbiting gloss helps me understand, but I think I entered an academic world where "always already" was always already a joke, so I don't have enough context clues to really really understand it.

    This marks the third time I have used "context clues" on this blog.

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  2. yeah exactly -- anything you say/do around "always already" has been said/done, always already! i'd've used seventeen scare quotes on the title if i wouldn't've made myself barf.

    it's a joke but it NEVER GOES AWAY in spite of the mockery, which feels very 'always already.'

    and so on!

    barf.

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