Village


 Contents
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Dedication
 Contents
 distillery
 
 Performance
 twilight lore
 counting sheep
 tending to drunk mothers
 Performance (cont.)
 Performance (cont.)
 Performance (cont.)
 the commodores
 combo 50
 matzo ball soup
 clap-on
 Performance (cont.)
 Performance (cont.)
 jesus children of ᎠᎺᎵᎦ america
 goldilocks
 “eduda …”
 Performance (cont.)
 Performance (cont.)
 Artist’s Statement
 river monsters
 
 “ūsdi …”
 that’s what friends are for
 booker t washington jhs54
 Shadiq (or was it Ejoe?)
 as seen on TV
 mrs. goldstein
 natasha is going to kill boris
 inventor of the penis pants
 70 west 115th
 some sort of alchemy
 “eu vou esperar …”
 petrona will you play w/ me?
 Cling
 pan’s labyrinth
 
 Great American Song Book
 the new guard
 a proposal
 The Last Days of Pompeii: An Installation
 (cont’d)
 the magic garden
 
 “o que você vê nelas …”
 ᎦᎵᏦᏕ galitsode is Tsalagi for house
 “ᏚᏳᎪᏛ the archetype of borrowed mantras:”
 ᎠᏍᎦᏯ ᎠᏂᏁᎳ asgaya aninela is Tsalagi for husband
 “what the reality say. ᏚᏳᎪᏛ or it is facts?”
 ᎤᏪᏴ uweyv is Tsalagi for river
 “Kumada & his wife lived in 2RW”
 ᎤᏍᏗᎢ ūsdii is Tsalagi for baby
 “Miss Daisy lived in 2FW...”
 ᏘᎵᎫ diligu is Tsalagi for rice
 “inferno of 1992”
 fantasma #2
 where are your bones
 
 ebo
 my first colonoscopy
 Evelyn “Champagne” King
 miss martha don’t remember mommy’s dead
 kummerspeck
 cliff notes
 kombucha
 111th Gothic
 “never secure in the long mourning texture...”
 “items of confectionery”
 hour of the star
 personal and artistic inventory
 a kind of selective glossary
 acknowledgments
 Back Cover
 
 
 
 Guide
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Dedication
 Contents
 distillery
 Performance
 Acknowledgments
 Start to Contents
 
 
 
 Pagebreaks of the Print Version
 
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 LATASHA N. NEVADA DIGGS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 VILLAGE
 
 LATASHA N. NEVADA DIGGS
 
 
 
 Minneapolis
 2023
 
 
 
 
 
 Copyright © 2023 by LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs
 Cover art and design © Douglas Kearney
 Book design by Bookmobile
 Author photograph © Dirk Skiba
 “Mother (original by Nagase Kiyoko)” by Kenneth Rexroth, from Women Poets of Japan, copyright © 1977 by Kenneth Rexroth and Ikuko Atsumi. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
 Coffee House Press books are available to the trade through our primary distributor, Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, cbsd.com or (800) 283-3572. For personal orders, catalogs, or other information, write to [email protected].
 Coffee House Press is a nonprofit literary publishing house. Support from private foundations, corporate giving programs, government programs, and generous individuals helps make the publication of our books possible. We gratefully acknowledge their support in detail in the back of this book.
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
 Names: Diggs, LaTasha N. Nevada, author.
 Title: Village / LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs.
 Description: Minneapolis : Coffee House Press, 2023.
 Identifiers: LCCN 2022036006 (print) | LCCN 2022036007 (ebook) | ISBN 9781566896610 (paperback) | ISBN 9781566896627 (epub)
 Subjects: LCGFT: Poetry.
 Classification: LCC PS3604.I394 V55 2023 (print) | LCC PS3604.I394 (ebook) | DDC 811/.6—dc23/eng/20221012
 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022036006
 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022036007
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
 302928272625242312345678
 
 
 
 forGemHaileNiyaNyrelJamilaMarion
 
 
 
 
 contents
 
 
 
 
 distillery
 Performance
 twilight lore
 counting sheep
 tending to drunk mothers
 Performance (cont.)
 Performance (cont.)
 Performance (cont.)
 the commodores
 combo 50
 matzo ball soup
 clap-on
 Performance (cont.)
 Performance (cont.)
 jesus children of ᎠᎺᎵᎦamerica
 goldilocks
 “eduda …”
 Performance (cont.)
 Performance (cont.)
 Artist’s Statement
 river monsters
 “ūsdi …”
 that’s what friends are for
 booker t washington jhs54
 Shadiq (or was it Ejoe?)
 as seen on TV
 mrs. goldstein
 natasha is going to kill boris
 inventor of the penis pants
 70 west 115th
 some sort of 
 
 mother
 
 
 
 She is like a cherished, bitter dream,
 My nerves cannot forget
 Even after I awake.
 She prevents all freedom of movement.
 If I move, she quickly breaks,
 And the splinters 
 
 distillery
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Performance
 
 
 
 To assist my survivors in making arrangements
 at the time of my departure,
 i provide the following information:
 
 
 
 
 1.