MÉNAGE À TRIOLETS, by Heidi Czerwiec

A [PANK] Blog guest series for National Poetry Month

I’m a poet with a confession to make: I love writing in form. I know that seems conservative and tame, but verse can actually be quite subversive. I love the way the language presses up against the constraints of form’s corset, the heat it produces. As I’ve written elsewhere:

 …I prefer restriction in my diction,
meter’s mastery, the subtle friction
of stress at work, the language modified.
You would not imagine how straight-laced
I am, inside my bedroom, verse encased.

For my April guest column, I offer you a series of triolets about interesting sex titbits in the news. The triolet is a French tickler of a repeating form that’s like a compressed villanelle, a fun amuse-bouche for these short-takes on recent risqué events. Enjoy!

STUDENT BODIES

http://reason.com/archives/2014/10/07/ruining-sex-in-california

Isn’t it sexier if I say yes?
or can I consent to nonconsent,
give in to the erotics of duress?
It might be sexier if I say yes
to each kiss, each soft (or rough) caress.
But for those more prone to experiment,
is it sexier if I say yes,
or can I consent to nonconsent?

***

Heidi Czerwiec is a poet, essayist, translator, and critic who teaches at the University of North Dakota and is poetry editor at North Dakota Quarterly. She is the author of three chapbooks, including Self-Portrait as Bettie Page, and the forthcoming A Is For A-ké, The Chinese Monster. Recent work appears or is forthcoming in Barrow Street, Waxwing, and Able Muse, and you can visit her at heidiczerwiec.com