Devota, Dot: And the Girls Worried Terribly

And the Girls Worried Terribly by Dot Devota (Noemi Press, paperback)

Publication Date: December 15, 2014

Publisher Marketing: Poetry.

Why did the girls worry terribly? The title was found in Oliver Statler's book, The Black Ship Scroll. This has been an important book to my partner, Brandon Shimoda. A caption beneath a sketch of two women in kimonos reads: "The foreigners said they wanted to take pictures of beautiful Japa-nese ladies, so the government officials ordered that some of the singing girls be chosen as subjects. Later a rumor spread that anyone who was photographed would die within three years, and the girls worried terribly." There was a deep-rooted superstition about having one's portrait made: the soul might leave to take up residence in the "new self," causing the fatal "shadow-sickness."

I got married in spring 2009 with Caitie Moore. We were two brides mar-rying ourselves to poetry. This took place on a homestead in the Bitterroot Mountains. We changed into our dresses in a shed. My mother showed up and sat in the front row. We walked down the aisle. The union was lawless. We read poems to confused guests. We cut into white cake. My bride's fam-ily thought I was her lover. Brandon wore the tie I made from my grand-mother's crochet. Afterwards, Brandon, Caitie and I moved to Seattle. My skin caught fever from the damp. I turned allergic to the sun. Each day it visited from outer space. A bride on her honeymoon! In shadow, I returned to normal. Having succumbed to something of myself. A vessel for infesta-tions. Poetry mounted me each night, tireless. I wanted to sleep, instead waking up every 3 minutes to scribble a couple lines, then fall backwards into my pillow. Only to be woken up again. A book was written, BLACK-WRITING, against my will. Immediately afterwards, I began writing a long poem about that day in the Bitterroot Mountains...