Rants and Raves: “Attitude” by Nicholas Goodly
Attitude
I left my attitude problem at home
with the fourteen-year-old dog. I got
a new attitude on the plane. I rolled
my eyes and it wasn’t a problem. It was
easy. The stewardess with the pearls
swinging across her chest, she served attitude
on a tray table. Poured some bad in my cup
mixed in with the ginger ale. The aircraft got off
the ground on attitude like jet fuel. I arrive
at my destination with some bite left in me.
Someone has to say the obvious thing.
You have to take yourself everywhere.
My brother wears a ring that changes colors
with his attitude. My new attitude
swallowed my old attitude. When I want
to be a different person I buy a new ring.
I pick up one with the smartest mouth
and play with it like an attitude. This attitude
right now has my momma’s hips on it. My waistline
is a bad number. These curves need room
to attitude. A creole starch and Wheaties attitude.
A boxing ring girl holding up a poem attitude. I can’t get over
how tenacious the world has made me. I hopped out the womb
like a gentle spark. To build a fire you tinder
the fire. I kick my feet up on the desk in front of me.
Alexa: play Debussy’s Claire de Lune, Jersey Mix.
They are praying in the next room. The heat of a work
of art lands wherever it is meant to land. How I hope
the lord holds space for the bitch in me. What if my angel
woke up with an attitude? Guarded me but dragged
her slippers in my way with an attitude both of us
pissed at nothing the attitude of a million reasons
without a name they say grace is an attitude. I want to roll
out of bed with it. My god put me back in fighting shape. I am
many things but not anything. I examine my figure and stand
in all the shades of it, proud of how well I can take a punch. Let me
call my demons by name and meet them in the parking lot. Bad
is what I do it’s not who I am. I am only cruel to people I don’t love
but I’m learning how to love everyone. I’m only a menace
when I need to be and I’m always a menace.
About Nicholas Goodly
Nicholas Goodly is the author of Black Swim (Copper Canyon, 2022). They are a team member of the performing arts platform Fly on a Wall and Poetry Editor for Wussy Magazine. Nicholas was a finalist for the 2020 Jake Adam York Prize, runner-up for the 2019 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, and recipient of the 2017 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship, among other awards. Their work has appeared in Poetry Magazine, The New Yorker, Boston Review, BOMB, The Poetry Project, Lambda Literary, Narrative Magazine, and elsewhere.