
This selection, chosen by Guest Curator Stephanie Erdman, is from Drop Jaw by Rikki Santer, released by NightBallet Press in 2020.
American Mouthpiece
My teacher…painted a Jerry Mahoney figure brown
and I used it for a while. —Willie Tyler, ventriloquist
Detroit gospel
ersatz afro—
Lester & the church
of Motown that
spun from his jaw.
Amen to TV lights
& Vegas—
quiddity of
breakthrough.
Cackling & raucous
that Georgia
pretty boy
& his Madame—
flamboyant & frothy
as banana
cream pie.
Juanito’s wooly
moustache &
dialect spitballs—
no stage,
no act, just
prancing duets
with what
other folks
say.
Hey, wooden
white boy,
time to move over—
Achmed,
dead terrorist
taunts American
delusion
illusion
now thinner
& unplugged.


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