I have not been able to go out, as we shouldn’t be out. But I was waiting for a period of time for somebody I knew to get their results back, and now that that is negative I can assume that I am clear as I have not been around anyone new. Just family. It has been weird to stay in, but I am trying to see the positives. I can still work, still do our readings online, and I can catch up on reading. (and maybe posting here, now and then!)
I read “Benefactor”, the chapbook by Moly Tov, a long time ago but they were on my mind and I took it out again. I feel a special connection to Moly, whose art is on the cover of my book and painting is in my office. It glows, it is a great thing.
Anyway, I took it out again. It has a simple, stitched style, from Indigent Press with a limited print run.
A few favorites: “Cruel”, “Benefactor”, “Brownstone Rupture”. Tricked by “Go Topless More Often”.
This is from “Cruel”:
and I don’t want to dream of you
or anything else anymore
so I’ll give myself the gift
of dead-eyed empty instead
because it’s the only way to be
when neither you or I
can love me
That is the kind of vulnerable poetry that gets to me about Moly.
From “Benefactor”:
life’s necessities are a privilege
we are not intrinsically
good enough
to afford
This poem refers to the people who run the lights, harvest and cook the food. This is something that I have been thinking about as everyone with the means is able to hide out at home with a computer and phone and yet there are millions of people still outside, exposed, delivering food to porches. Making fries. Working in warehouses. Some say that they will lose their jobs if they don’t report to work and are afraid of the consequences when this is over. Some question why they are considered “essential” and if their role is truly needed, or meant to insulate their employers from bigger losses. Losses affect everyone, sure, but nobody is asking why big companies haven’t thought of a back up plan for their rent. What remains open is questionable, some makes sense. Some does not. Some people say that they are lucky to have jobs. They feel weird about being “essential” when up until now, they were treated as disposable. There are people whose employers provide little-no masks, no extra pay for the privilege of exposure. After all, we have to have coffee.
But I wonder how this will go, now that so many have realized that they can stay home safe and others will help them keep their comforts. I wonder how the world will be even more divided along classist lines, how much more we will lean on the young as we consider ourselves to be higher risk. Will we treat the warehouse workers better, after they kept us afloat?
If ever there was a person who deserves a benefactor to support doing art all day, it is Moly Tov. Their talent is already incredible, and one can only imagine what would be shared with the world by the gift of time. Check out The Hodge and The Podge or vice versa here.
“Benefactor”, by Moly Tov.
