(1) I’ve officially finished working under Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor on the Tao Po! poems, though this does not mean I will stop writing them. She has given me some great feedback on all of my drafts, many questions which I think facilitate the writing of more poems. For example, on this last poem, “Why Girls Do Not Speak,” some points to tease out: as a young woman living in disguise as a man, does my “she” take a lover and spouse, and if so, is it a woman or man. Does she have children of her own (or does her “wife” have children), and what happens if they have a girl. Would this girl also be raised as a boy.
As for the wives taken by the pale men, what of their children, and particularly, their girl children. And do the elders regret their decision to let the pale men take their daughters for wives. If the elders do regret this, what do they do. What can they do. One way of summing up the above questions would be this: what are the consequences of my she being raised as a boy. Is it this one thing that brings about a fundamental change in her society. Are their traditional gender roles and relationships upended, and then what does this mean for this society. Can this happen in one generation, or is that totally unrealistic, without dismantling this society. OK, that’s many things, and only on this one poem, which means more poems for me to write on this, and after going back to the previous poems in this series.
