Florence Anthony (born 1947) is an American poet. She legally changed her name to Ai, the Japanese word for “love”. She is noted for her uncompromising poetic vision and bleak dramatic monologues which give voice to marginalized, often poor and abused speakers.
She was born in Albany, Texas but grew up in Tucson, Arizona. Her ancestry is part Japanese, Choctaw-Chickasaw, Black, Irish, Southern Cheyenne, and Comanche.
Disregard
By Ai
Overhead, the match burns out,
but the chunk of ice in the back seat
keeps melting from imagined heat,
while the old Hudson tiptoes up the slope.
My voile blouse, so wet it is transparent,
like one frightened hand, clutches my chest.
The bag of rock salt sprawled beside me wakes, thirsty
and stretches a shaky tongue toward the ice.
I press the gas pedal hard.
I’ll get back to the house, the dirt yard, the cesspool,
to you out back, digging a well
you could fill with your sweat,
though there is not one reason I should want to.
You never notice me until the end of the day,
when your hand is on my knee
and the ice cream, cooked to broth,
is hot enough to burn the skin off my touch.
source:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42546/disregard
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