I was born awake and knowing and time keeps proving this:
men have reasons for breaking the rules. For me, thinking
has always been a logical process of if this, then that. I fit into
a chair. I sit in a room. I split in two—my body behaves but
my mind resists. It’s a simple truth that one can occupy two
places at one time while sitting in a chair—the same way a
poseable doll can be divided from her dress. It’s also true that
time will mesh us together. Until then, there’s another city on
the other side of this wall. A list listing reordered details might
read like this: light, glass, a metal stairway, one woman sitting
on the sill of a window, me in a chair. My feet on the floor,
face forward, arm bent, the very best of the body tucked into
place. But we are not dolls. We feel. We make mistakes.
A Numbered Graph That Shows How Each Part of the Body Would Fit Into A Chair
Mary Jo Bang
‘It’s a simple truth that one can occupy two / places at one time while sitting in a chair—the same way a / poseable doll can be divided from her dress.’
2023 Forward Prizes

Withstances
‘I alone know a running stream
that is recovery partly and dim sweat
of a day-fever’
A poem by Rowan Evans.

In Conversation
‘Humour is a thread we hang onto. It punctures through the fog of guilt.’
Momtaza Mehri in conversation with Warsan Shire.

In Conversation
‘Something shifted in me that night. A small voice in my head said, maybe you can make a way for yourself as a poet here, too.’
Mary Jean Chan in conversation with Andrew McMillan.

Joy and Insecurity in Port-au-Prince
‘There was to be an exhibition. There were lots of pictures like his, apparently – of waiters, pastry cooks, valets, bellboys.’
An essay by Jason Allen-Paisant from Granta 159: What Do You See?

Naming
‘I have started to see that nothing is itself’
A poem by Jason Allen-Paisant from Granta 154: I’ve Been Away for a While.
Mary Jo Bang
Mary Jo Bang is the author of seven books of poems and a translation of Dante's Inferno (with illustrations by Henrik Drescher). Her most recent collection is The Last Two Seconds. She is a Professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, where she teaches in the Creative Writing Program.
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