∃ x (D(x) → U(x))
/ premise
If someone’s arms are dangling from the sockets
/ then someone is upside down
D(m) ⋅ D(y)
/ premise
My arms are dangling from the sockets
/ and yours are, too
D(m) → U(m)
/ existential simplification / 1&2
My arms are
/ dangling so I am upside
/ down
D(y) → U(y)
/ simplification 1&2
You are dangling
/ so you too see the upside
∀x(U(x)) → N(x))
Everyone who is upside down
/ is needy premise
(D(m)) → N(m))
/ universal instantiation / 5
/ hypothetical 3 / 5
I am down
/ and I am needy, therefore
N(m)
/ simplification 2
/ 6&2
I am greedy
/ with need
N(m) → (T ⋅ R)
And if I am premise
/ then I mouth how you twisted me
/ ajar and I round out the
/ vowels
T ⋅ R
/ mo
/ dus po
/ nens
I mouth and I round
/ out
R → (H⋅¬H)
If I vowel
/ you hear me premise and
/ you don’t hear me
/ 9 mo
/ dus 10
/ &9
You do and
/ you don’t hear
¬H→ P
If
/ you don’t premise
/ my world rides in your
/ pocket
P → W
(prem) If
/ my world rides
/ in your pocket then you
/ take my world with you
/ (hiss)
¬H→ W
/ hypothetical
/ 12&13
You don’t hear
/ me then
/ you take my world
W
/ 111411
You take it
/ simplification
¬W + F
/ You don’t
/ take my wor(l)d with you
/ or my mouth
/ forsakes sound
F
/(s)yllogism 17
from 15 16
/ sound for
/ dis negation
/ my junctive
/ mouthsake
Listen to the poet read “Mouth (Forsakes) Sound”
*Read Claretta Holsey’s Contributor Interview with Penda Smith
Claretta Holsey is a Rona Jaffe Foundation Graduate Fellow and a Literary Translation Graduate Certificate candidate at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. A three-time awardee of the Academy of American Poets prize, she recently graduated summa cum laude with a BA from Stetson University. Her poetry and creative non-fiction have been published in Eclectica Magazine, Poetry Breakfast, Fishfood Magazine, and on Poets.org and PromptPress. She has read for The Iowa Review and is reading for the microjournal Black Poetry Review.