NOTES ON A DIMINISHED LIFE

Billy-Ray Belcourt


I GOOGLE MYSELF TO FEEL LESS ATOMISTIC
I HAPPEN UPON A MISPLACED HEADLINE ABOUT A MAN WITH A NAME LIKE MINE
AND TODAY THAT IS MY BODY
MY KINK IS THE ANNIHILATION OF MY CORE SENSE OF SELF
ON TINDER, I SWIPE RIGHT ON POST-STRUCTURALISTS AND NO ONE ELSE
I AM LOOKING FOR SOMEONE WITH WHOM TO PURCHASE A SKINNY HOME
AT THE INTERSECTION OF FISSURED SYSTEMS OF MEANING
“THE BODY” WAS A LOST OBJECT LONG BEFORE THE PRESENT
A BODY BY WAY OF A BODY THAT WAS NOT BY WAY OF A BODY THAT WAS NOT
SELF-MAKING: A QUIXOTIC HOBBY OF THE ANTI-HISTORIANS
TOP ME, BUT ONTOLOGICALLY
THE POET IS ALWAYS AGAINST “X” WHERE “X” IS HERSELF AND THE SOVEREIGN “I”
PLUS AN EVER-MULTIPLYING SET OF PRACTICES OF CATEGORIZATION
HOW CLOSE CAN ONE GET TO THE NOT-I
AND STILL HOLD A SENSE OF SAFETY IN BEING IN THE WORLD
I AM IN A STRUGGLE AGAINST SELF-ABOLITION (ANNE BOYER)
I AM IN A STRUGGLE AGAINST THE APPEAL OF ALWAYS BEING IN A STRUGGLE
CAN ONE BE AGAINST DATA AND STILL BE FOR KINSHIP
I ATTEND TO THE ENCOUNTERS BETWEEN PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES
UN- AND -ING TELL ME ENOUGH ABOUT “CONTEXTS OF PERCEIVING” (HIROMI GOTO)
PROVE TO ME THAT SHE WHO DESPISES THE WORLD IS NOT ALSO TRANSFIXED BY IT
I WANT TO WRITE AS THOUGH EACH WORD WERE A LIMB TO BE PUPPETEERED

I WANT TO BE STOMACHED BY A METAPHOR; THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO IT

ALWAYS, I MAKE ENDINGS OUT OF ENDINGS



Billy-Ray Belcourt is from the Driftpile Cree Nation. He is a Ph.D. student and Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar in the Department of English & Film Studies at the University of Alberta. This Wound is a World is his first book; it won the 2018 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize, the 2018 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize, and a 2018 Indigenous Voices Award. His next book, NDN Coping Mechanisms: Notes from the Field, is due out in the fall of 2019 with House of Anansi Press.