This is an all-fuzz inclusive trip
a soft buzzing
that unhinges the muzzle of upbringings
a turning-over satiation that floats
a tactile funk halo
i’ve embraced my fuzzy head as thinking gear
Plus the sun is fuzzy
its hazy rush bursts into static shock
with cyclic rhythm rain in mirage
pulsating lullabies for the skin
a reddening
a tan that emerges and makes sense to people
a racial fuzz
where roses grow up my facial interior
i use three different types of sunscreen
it smooths down my blond fuzz
then allows fuzz to push up through its layers
buzzing from the core to the mantle and crusts
a milky balm i smell in the air a while
i apply it sometimes thick cuz i like liquid cover
i like feeling fresh hair
i miss a shaving to have more fuzz
smoothness is ok but not today
i land on kiwis and i arrive
i like how fuzz feels on my tongue
a favorite stone fruit in season
peach rugs that gently rub against
a sonic taste budding sauna
Monarch butterflies move and my eyes grasp orange fuzz
fireflies fuzz the air where i grew up
on a short highway leading to the ocean
i went, letting the sun beam my armhair twinkling fuzz
almost 9 years i’m still writing the hurricane sandy elegy
now becoming a fuzzy watered memento
my pillow maintains muscle memory
it gives into my face
a hug covered in satin for my strands and tears
when i’m too tired or in another funk to remember my bonnet
bike rides on route 35 buried in sand
the road that turns into mine
the long way home fuzz that stretches time
Going ghost i sip on stout that is outlined with peanut butter
a milkiness that makes fuzz stand on edge
a fuzz feeding off chills
How often do you get chills?
not out of fear, but the other kind
that you almost ignore like yawns of others
like coughs meant to move into next sentences
a nervous fuzz that drips down the throat, a leaky faucet
i get chills often
my body ignites i can’t think of anything else
but fuzzy wavelengths holding me in their riptide
My voice gets fuzzy
a fractal of my hair of my origin
i’ve spent hours giving it my hands
and witnessed so many eyes rise up to it
following humidity’s traces
my fuzz will keep me safe
my fuzz knows when to get updo something
it styles itself and whichever way
rattling outer hairs that rustle
fly and compose an ancestral orchestra
another variation of fly aways
it manages to join and escape braids, buns, twists
it can’t be held down for nobody too long
it gathers bits of light and makes them physical
Summer is another way that fuzz is alive high and kicking
it’s not policed
its fuzz is a different force
a fuzzy peace of mind
it erases away messages i composed but didn’t send
it coats wounds and doesn’t cause them
Fuzz can dance
alone or partnered with a slow w(h)ine with trees breathing their timing in
fuzz wants to be free
it has a heartbeat that keeps vibrating heat
and playing outside despite streetlamp buzz
its flurries cover moss and bamboo
where dragonflies steady and retain color for longer
and cicadas are reborn in climate fuzz
It grows through club dance floors
while you wait in line
cheering me on, wearing me
twerking fuzz under a disco ball
your DJ making it rain underneath
swangin all the way
Tuck me in gently, Fuzz
with your bodily rocking chair
we go back back
don’t change
light me on fire
not in an arson way but with a synth
and keep my hands warm
=========
And We Go Gentle—Hiatus Kaiyote
Beddie-Biey—Steve Arrington
Beverly Hills—Phonte, Devin Morrison
Birthday—Disclosure, Kehlani, Syd
Break You Off—The Roots, Musiq Soulchild
Dimensions—Watson Beasley
Do Something—Macy Gray
Flying V Ride—DāM-FunK
High—Little Dragon
I! Gits! Weary!—keiyaA
I’ll Erase Away Your Pain—The Whatnauts
Infrastructure—St. Panther, Raedio
La Di Da—The Internet
Paper Thin—Lianne La Havas
Play In The Sunshine—Prince
Prophet—Bernhoft
Sound of Rain—Solange
Speaking Gently—BADBADNOTGOOD
The Love That I’m Giving—Iman Omari, Raedio, Kent Jamz
6 8—Gabriel Garzón-Montano
===in order and shuffled===
Notes:
= Inspired by previous playlist poems and teen playlist writing workshops I facilitated alongside Robin Lee Jordan at Just Buffalo Writing Center in Buffalo, NY.
= I wanted to try a different approach toward writing playlist poems. It’s a collaboration-based community task through the mixtape where the artists and their influences seep into thinking / writing. Here, I wrote a love letter to fuzz and all things and people who are fuzzy. Growing up, many people told me that I would “look better” without fuzz or volume in my hair, or if I straightened it. I disagreed and still do. That’s just my hair sometimes. Being fuzzy is a lifestyle. I created a playlist around how certain songs made me feel fuzzy in my senses. I found songs from other playlists given to me by friends, lovers, and old versions of myself. I wrote while listening to the list in order and shuffled. I composed “Fuzzy” on the same July 2021 day of Nomadic Press’s Get Lit virtual live reading I was asked to join: much appreciation to Richie Wills and Dior J. Stephens. Sharing my spontaneous fuzziness amongst people I didn’t know was a collaborative experience and I planned to keep it fully in the performance space. After some zzz’s, sun, and doing my hair, I decided I want to remember it in this space, too, as a sharable fuzzy transcription.
Dana Venerable is a writer and an English PhD Candidate at SUNY University at Buffalo, currently working at Kean University in Union, NJ.
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