Photo: Tiffany Bessire

MENYOU

In response to Food

by Asif ElAmri-Brantley 

In response to Food


It would be so easy.
Tumble to logolepsy, land gently in my soft, cushioned embrace.
Lay your mind bare, I have something to tell you. Let your skull fill with sweet wine and comfortable compliance. I will pour for you. I have such good ideas, don’t you want to listen?
Come closer, my words are confidential, exclusive, they aren’t to be heard by any ears but yours. You’re special; only you have been invited in, only me and you.
Why, when there exists something so euphoric as my song, would you want to be anything but raptly Lisztomanic? It would be so easy!
My serenade is very unlike the shanties you have heard, isn’t it? This is what I do best, after all. This is my lifeblood. Well, mine now at least.
The melody drips from my lips and runs down my chin. It’s delicious. Would you like some? I’ll spare some, just for you.
Come closer, I want to give you something. It would be so easy to steer your ships towards those rocks. At least, it used to be... So few people set sail these days.


About 
Asif ElAmri-Brantley
Asif ElAmri-Brantley is a high school senior born and raised in Nashville, he’s always been homeschooled, which means he’s been allowed to write, make art and run rampant in Tennessee’s wild places for 18 years. He wants to see more people like him in media, so his stories are full of queer, mixed-culture, chronically ill joy. In his writing he tries to capture both the world around him and the world inside his head.
OZ Arts Nashville presents Art Wire: an ongoing collaboration between OZ Arts and The Porch in which 10 writers attend the OZ Arts performance season and respond to the presentations through original writing that is personal, playful, and deeply engaged. The OZ Arts 2019-2020 season offers each Art Wire Fellow a diverse array of inspiration, including innovative Japanese dance artist Hiroaki Umeda; a genre-bending presentation of Frankenstein by Chicago-based company Manual Cinema; and two emotionally raw works with Nashville's own professional dance company, New Dialect, just to name a few.

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