Hello, Monster

"Hello, Monster" was my favorite poem to read in Armor and Flesh. Perhaps it was the author's simple choice of words or just the concept itself that appealed to me. The poem starts off pretty generically with "the monster in my closet" idea but then it becomes heavyhearted and carries a sorrowful tone. Here, the narrator calls herself "the monster" because she seems to hurt everyone and everything that gets close to her. "I threaten me, everything I hold dear". She is her own worst enemy and it kills her to not be around the ones she cares about in fear of damaging them. At night she hides underneath her covers beacuse she is afraid of unleashing the beast within herself. "My sharp teeth glinting in the moonlight" reminded me of a werewolf or vampire, both which are associated with the night, envoking feelings of unrest and disparity . There is a sense of inner turmoil in the second to last stanza in which she cries, "Don't tell me it's ok. I know what I'm like". This is the author speaking in her own voice and not the monster's. This identity crisis or duality in character is made evident in the last stanza, "How much damage I could do if given room" which is the most aggressive by far. I would love to find out what has created this monster. -Pete Lee

Jay Maul

I'd like to consider a theme that I found to be common in several of the poems in Armor and Flesh. A handful of poems near the beginning of the book illustrate the notion of an “inside me” versus an “outside me,” or some kind of internal struggle, in which the narrator seeks self-peace. Five poems that obviously exhibited this idea are: One Black Girlhood, In the Street, Shook, Euridice to Orfeu in the Basement, and Hello, Monster. Obadike weaves these poems together using common diction and simple imagery; and for this reason, I think the sum of the poems helps tremendously in understanding each individual poem.

One Black Girlhood and In The Street
These are the first two poems in the book, and I think it's safe to assume the man in the first is the same person as the man in the second. In One Black Girlhood, the narrator introduces the two characters, the man and the girl, and In the Street depicts and struggle between them. The narrator says “We are fighting”; although the two are fighting, she says “I know he is protecting me,” and “I know he loves me,” reinforcing the concept of an internal struggle (fighting and protecting at the same time?).

Shook
This one was my favorite, and it's full of references to other poems. The first two stanzas set up a scene in which the narrator is observing an extremely obnoxious woman who is “gushing” out words, who then goes silent, and “acts normal.” The imagery of the third stanza creates a mindset in which the narrator is very tense; there is a “rumbling, but she can't locate it.” The fourth stanza shows that the narrator is afraid. She feels like she's sweating, she feels like “everybody can see [her] shaking.” I feel that “everybody watching” is a reference to the situation of In the Street (where the action takes place “in the street”). This stanza conjures up a horrific, panicky, insecure mental state. The next stanza, justified differently than the rest, changes perspective. It represents the good person that exists among the others, and peace and self-comfort to the narrator. “She wants to protect the talking woman.” reminds me again of In the Street (“I know he is protecting me.”). And the sixth stanza... a happy ending? “We feel my flesh.” ... “we” makes me think that now, she is composed. Now, “Nothing shakes or rumbles.”

Euridice to Orfeu in the Basement
First off, I think she is talking to herself (it goes with the theme). The first thing I noticed was that this poem is very simple and choppy, but to-the-point and musical through the repetition. It leaves me with an image of the narrator, and another person, as Obadike puts it, “a distant she,” the two of which cannot coexist. One more thing... “Let me drift behind you,” I feel, could be a reference to the first poem, One Black Girlhold (“Watching myself over my shoulder.”) I think subtle connections like these play a big role in establishing a theme, and thus giving more meaning to each individual poem.

Hello, Monster
Also a very simple poem, the presence of the theme is very clear: “I'm afraid to see me creeping out.”

As I said, these poems can be found in the beginning of the book, possibly representing an internal struggle that the author had as a young person (?). I found it interesting that the last poem in the collection starts every line with “The best way to be [something] is ...,” and through the use of repetition, creates an attitude of bold self-confidence. It's possible that the progression of the poems and the evolution of their attitudes make a statement about the development of the author's self-peace.

One last thing... I think the quote in the beginning of the book really sums up the proposed internal struggle of youth.

My questions are...

Were the poems written in the order that they can be found in the book?

and

What's in the pages between those given? More poems? Pictures?

Swing and a Miss

I'm not entirely sure how to evaluate this work as a whole. There are many poems about many things from many points of view.

I guess the one that I recall the most vividly would be a couple of the ones that seemed to deal heavily with race and discrimination. "One Black Girlhood" was kind of wild. The speaker spends two and a half stanzas describing herself as a white man in vivid details like "wavy and feathered" hair, the Seventies, and so on until dropping the bomb that this person is actually a "small, black girl".

I will now express my reaction with a traditoinal colloquialism from my generation: WTF??

Is this girl just pretending? Has she been watching too much television? Is this her ultimate, unachievable goal that she will spend the rest of her life longing for (most people have at least one)?

Reading back over for clues as to what the heck just happened, all I could gather to unite the white man and the black girl was the gesture of "watching myself over my shoulder". Perhaps looking back at who she was in the past? Unless she's had Michael Jackson's skin condition and a sex change, this seems very unlikely to be a literal description of her life. So how does this work? How does a "small, black girl" gain such insight into the white man that she "never doubted" was her?

Anyone?

Armor and Flesh

Mendi Obadike's poem "A Far Cry" caught my attention in particular. It seems to just recount getting lost in rural Tennesse, Where the narrator feels the white locals would react in a hostile manner towards a black woman. The poem's language conveys the unease she's feeling.She especially captures this feeling in the second stanza when she talks about being followed and suggests that the driver can identify her by her hair. she says "I think he will follow me / into a driveway if I try to turn around." This line really seems to capture that feeling of unease while leaving everything else to the reader's imagination. The unease continues through the entire poem in lines like "What makes them / tear our flesh sometimes?" and "Could be church / or a hanging."

I also really liked the metaphor of her ancestors' armor being the meak demeanor she adopts to fit in to the rural Tennessee atmosphere. It really implies quite a lot about her and her ancestors and their interaction withthe white population beyond whats written on the page.

I also liked the rythym of "Euridice and Orfeu in the Basement" and "Contagion." They both use line breaks and assonance really effectively and interestingly.

Jennifer McCauley

Mendi Lewis’s Armor and Flesh is sumptuous, introspective, sensitive, and in some moments unsettling. To review the book as a whole is difficult, as even one line from one of this talented autho r’s poems evokes enormous effect. Therefore, I will focus on a few of the most striking poems in the book, which encompass the overarching theme of finding one’s inner strength. The first piece sets the stage for the narrator’s inner journey, placing Lewis (or the implied author) in the skin of a white man. As this figure, the ‘she’ character is breezy, self-assured, and attractive to women. Lewis writes, “I never doubted this was me…Even though I was a small, black girl watching myself over my shoulder. and did not need to see my face or recognize my own soft voice.” As this white man the narrator’s hair is “wavy” and she wears a “cowboy hat” (a symbol of America-the wild west). Mendi obviously associates the white man (at least America’s perception of him), with control and power. In contrast, as a black girl, Lewis is “small” her voice “soft”. Although one may suggest Lewis desires to be a Caucasian male to acquire his rights and self-confidence, I argue Lewis already believes she IS this sort of person, regardless of her appearance. When she states, “I never doubted this was me…” and “I did not need to see my face or recognize my own soft voice”, she expresses an awareness of her own power, despite her “soft voice”. Throughout the course of the book, the narrator contrasts her quiet, internal voice with the woman hungry for ‘armor’,20for the powerful, the sexual and perhaps masculine. In “Her Subject”, the narrator is gentle and vulnerable, she desires to exit her own body for a few moments, to shed her insecurities, and not focus on how peers and lovers perceive her. She desires to lose her, “awkward pose, clunky shoes, my width and height”. Similarly, In “Not A Sound”, Lewis writes, “Rodeo red around her shoulders…need a red flag.” The poem is not in first person, however, if one were to identify this ‘she’ as Lewis, one could interpret this “rodeo red” as Lewis’s awareness of her fighter’s spirit. The red flag may suggest she requires the signal to move forward. (Also if the ‘rodeo red’ refers to a torero in Spanish bull fights, the bullfighter is usually a man. If Lewis is referencing American rodeos, the same rule applies. Is Lewis still identifying strength with the masculine? Or is she claiming that she possesses the power of a man and simply needs the confidence to unleash her true self? I still think the latter.). Nevertheless, In “Hello, Monster”, the narrator’s voice reflects a dark, even sinister personality: “I am the monster in my closet…At night under covers, I’m afraid to creep out…I threaten…everything I hold dear…I know what I’m like.” Lewis is keenly aware of the fierce, even destructive being sleeping within her soft exterior. In this poem she reveals her internal struggle with the ‘beast’ who threatens her self-confidence. In the final poem, “Out of The Water”, the author seems to have emerged from the struggle between her two selves, perhaps new, perhaps more self-aware. She writes, “My shell begins to harden the hot sky…I’m almost safe.” Note, her shell is not hardened BY the hot sky, she herself does the hardening. Her ‘shell’ is now strong enough to influence even her natural surroundings. However, the narrator states “I’m ALMOST safe”, implying she has not yet fully transformed into whatever self she desires to be; she is still a work in progress. Although Lewis’ book includes racial tension, sexuality, and feminism, the work is a ultimately a journey of self, of a woman struggling to create armor from flesh.