Episode #082 Decoy Gang War Victim - Carmen Gimenez Smith

Connor and Jack discuss the ekphrastic poem, Decoy Gang War Victim by Carmen Gimenez Smith. They discuss the nature of acting and direction, the history of the photo from which the poem grew, the hard-to-pin-down voice of the poem's speaker, and much more.

EDIT: This episode was originally posted with an inaccurate title for the poem, "Decoy War Gang Victim." This has been corrected. We apologize for the mistake.

You can find the poem (along with the photograph) here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/58875/decoy-gang-war-victim

You can buy Carmen Gimenez Smith's latest book "Be Recorder" here: https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/be-recorder

Decoy Gang War Victim

By: Carmen Gimenez Smith

For Harry Gamboa,   Jr.

Just a tick ago, the actor was a Roman candle

shot to the sky, smudged by rain’s helter-

skelter. His motivation was: he’s a stooge

on L.A.’s sodden turnpike, so we have “to make” art. Got

to rezone and react. The world the bare wall to

his bullet. Got to rile up the populace, to fortify

the arsenal. Once in a while, repopulate and penetrate,

paint a list of incitement onto the walls.

An elder told him that to overturn the city, one must

surrender body/belongings to the one explosive

spectacle of truth, making it ongoing. Pay attention.

To overturn the city, not just the scraps but fervor itself.

Not just the wan broadcast of indignation but

IRL incursions into the workhouses and

poorhouses to inflame the thousand points of  light.

A lean surge, departure pinks both ends of  him.

He’s the nth layer folded into the stand’s nerve.

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