Analysis of The 17-Year-Old & the Gay Bar



this gin-heavy heaven, blessed ground to think gay & mean we.
bless the fake id & the bouncer who knew
this need to be needed, to belong, to know how
a man taste full on vodka & free of sin. i know not which god to pray to.
i look to christ, i look to every mouth on the dance floor, i order
a whiskey coke, name it the blood of my new savior. he is just.
he begs me to dance, to marvel men with the
                                                                                   dash
of hips i brought, he deems my mouth in some stranger’s mouth necessary.
bless that man’s mouth, the song we sway sloppy to, the beat, the bridge, the length
of his hand on my thigh & back & i know not which country i am of.
i want to live on his tongue, build a home of gospel & gayety
i want to raise a city behind his teeth for all boys of choirs & closets to refuge in.
i want my new god to look at the mecca i built him & call it damn good
or maybe i’m just tipsy & free for the first time, willing to worship anything i can taste.


Scheme ABCBDEFGAHIEJKL
Poetic Form
Metre 1110101111111 101101011 111110101111 011111011111111111 111111110011011110 0101110111110111 11111110110 1 1111111101101100 11110111101010101 1111111111110111 11111111011101 1111010011111111101100 111111110101111111 1101110110111011010111
Closest metre Iambic octameter
Characters 1,030
Words 209
Sentences 9
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 15
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 47
Words per line (avg) 14
Letters per stanza (avg) 703
Words per stanza (avg) 203
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Written on 2017

Submitted by Drone232 on June 28, 2022

Modified on May 04, 2023

1:02 min read
90

Danez Smith

Danez Smith was born St. Paul, Minnesota. They are the author of Don't Call Us Dead (2017), a finalist for the National Book Award; [insert] Boy (2014), winner of the Lambda Literary Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award; and the chapbook hands on ya knees (Penmanship Books, 2013). Smith is the recipient of fellowships from the McKnight Foundation, Cave Canem, Voices of Our Nation (VONA), and elsewhere. They are a founding member of the multigenre, multicultural Dark Noise Collective. Their writing has appeared in many magazines and journals, such as Poetry, Ploughshares, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Kinfolks. In poetry slam, Smith is a 2011 Individual World Poetry Slam finalist and the reigning two-time Rustbelt Individual Champion, and was on the 2014 championship team Sad Boy Supper Club. more…

All Danez Smith poems | Danez Smith Books

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