The Vital System is the first published book by a poet already setting off sparks among readers across the globe. In these poems, the body is always at stake — vulnerable — and the poet dares to try and illuminate what she has called “the protective capability of violence.” Burroughs’s compression of phrasing, subverted syntax, and ability to release a story through cinematically sequenced images allow her to expose particular tensions that are gendered and racial as well as essentially human.
Table of Contents
I
DEAR INCUBATOR, | 3
NINETEEN NINETY-EIGHT | 5
DREAM, AFTER HER BURIAL | 6
NIGHTS’ LARGE FEARS | 7
ARTIST’S DELIGHT | 8
METAPHOR FOR WEEPING | 9
HOW THIS ENDS | 10
RAVING: I | 11
CLITORIS | 12
THE QUESTION TOSSED AT YOU | 14
II
OF A LARGER SEQUENCE | 17
KNITTING BONE | 18
ROOM | 19
SOME YOUNG WOMAN | 20
THE LAST WORD | 21
THE HAND AUGMENTED BY THE OTHER | 22
UNPACKING | 23
III
THE VITAL SYSTEM | 27
IV
ON IMPACT | 33
FROM WHERE YOU ARE, SEARCH | 34
FOR THE CIRCUS OF I | 35
THE PANORAMA ROOM | 37
ADORE THE HUMAN | 38
BABY/BABY | 39
& GLORY | 40
V
ONE OF TWO WAYS | 43
THINK AWAY THE BLOOD | 44
THE POWER OF THE VULNERABLE BODY | 45
VIDEO SHOOT | 47
ASSUMED SAVAGE: I | 49
-FOR A GOOD MAN | 51
VI
MY HELPLESS NEED TO REPEAT, RE- VIEW, RE-VISE | 55
BLACK MEMORABILIA | 56
IN THE PERSONAL CAMP, EROTICISM | 58
A YOUNG GIRL AND A HOODED ATTENDANT | 59
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | 63
DEAR INCUBATOR, | 3
NINETEEN NINETY-EIGHT | 5
DREAM, AFTER HER BURIAL | 6
NIGHTS’ LARGE FEARS | 7
ARTIST’S DELIGHT | 8
METAPHOR FOR WEEPING | 9
HOW THIS ENDS | 10
RAVING: I | 11
CLITORIS | 12
THE QUESTION TOSSED AT YOU | 14
II
OF A LARGER SEQUENCE | 17
KNITTING BONE | 18
ROOM | 19
SOME YOUNG WOMAN | 20
THE LAST WORD | 21
THE HAND AUGMENTED BY THE OTHER | 22
UNPACKING | 23
III
THE VITAL SYSTEM | 27
IV
ON IMPACT | 33
FROM WHERE YOU ARE, SEARCH | 34
FOR THE CIRCUS OF I | 35
THE PANORAMA ROOM | 37
ADORE THE HUMAN | 38
BABY/BABY | 39
& GLORY | 40
V
ONE OF TWO WAYS | 43
THINK AWAY THE BLOOD | 44
THE POWER OF THE VULNERABLE BODY | 45
VIDEO SHOOT | 47
ASSUMED SAVAGE: I | 49
-FOR A GOOD MAN | 51
VI
MY HELPLESS NEED TO REPEAT, RE- VIEW, RE-VISE | 55
BLACK MEMORABILIA | 56
IN THE PERSONAL CAMP, EROTICISM | 58
A YOUNG GIRL AND A HOODED ATTENDANT | 59
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | 63