WIHTBOAM

The poem opened on Friday, August 23 at 12 AM in Brisbane, Australia (UTC+10:00) and closed on Sunday, August 25 at 5:00 PM.

WIHTBOAM was a collaborative poem that you were invited to help write. It's an exquisite corpse with a twist: it steals the form and first line of Elizabeth Bachinsky's "When I Have the Body of a Man", from The Hottest Summer in Recorded History, (Nightwood Editions, 2013), reprinted here with generous permission of the author and publisher:

WHEN I HAVE THE BODY OF A MAN

When I have the body of a man, I have the head of a bull.

When I have the head of a bull, Athena springs from my forehead.

When Athena springs from my forehead, I tell Athena, Cut it out!

When I tell Athena, Cut it out! she makes a string of paper dolls from my money.

When she makes a string of paper dolls from my money, I say Thank you, fold them up, and put them in a drawer.

When I say Thank you, fold them up, and put them in a drawer, the dolls figure out a way to get out and use eBay when I'm not at home.

When the dolls figure out a way to get out and use eBay when I'm not at home, I know I've not had enough to drink.

When I know I've not had enough to drink, I admire my foritude.

When I admire my fortitude, Athena says, Cut it out!

When Athena says, Cut it out! one should always listen.

When one should always listen, I think, Don't tell me what to do with my time!

When I think Don't tell me what to do with my time! I have the body of a man.

In WIHTBOAM, you were invited to contribute a line to a poem, that is prepended by a "When" clause (i.e. 'When I have the body of a man,'). Your line then became the leading "When" clause of the next contributor's line.

You may view the poem here.

WIHTBOAM was created for the 2013 Queensland Poetry Festival by Sachiko Murakami under the tutelage of Bill Kennedy.

WIHTBOAM did not tolerate defamatory, racist, sexist, or homophobic language.