Green Linden Press

[POEM THAT ENDS UP ON ITS KNEES IN CHINA IN A PAIR OF LEVI'S]

In the outsourcing era, all Levi’s jeans are stitched outside
America with one exception: a single line of jeans produced
at a factory called “White Oak” in Greensboro, NC.
—”The True Cost of ‘Made in the USA’ Levi’s? $178,” Patrick Winn

—so then I wanted to write a poem about my pants

which are hecho en Mexico // they have that provenance // being works of art //
which is fine by me I know a few words of Spanish so I can mutter
gracias Juan y Maria // gracias gracias Felipe // me llamo Dennis //
es un placer conocerte // cómo se dice en Español “distressed” because
the knees are so beautifully ragged I must praise you // though now
I think it is your own knees I must consider // lo siento mis amigos //
your jobs are gone // the cuts are being lasered now // —O Guadalajara //
O San Juan del Rio // I am on my iPhone in a First World condo //
sunlight baking my white skin raw // slim pointer finger
so unlike a laser coming at you // it pokes letters & then does it again
the keyboard is so small it keeps autocorrecting // killing my mood
[SIDEBAR: perhaps I should consider an iPad // it’s bigger // more lap
friendly] // —O China // your language may be broken sticks to me but
I can write them down beside the teeming Gulf to say 你好 (Nǐ hǎo)

(tú también haces Levi's) Nǐ hǎo everyone

(This poem is from the book schema geometrica from Green Linden Press.)

Also by Dennis Hinrichsen: "[Alzheimer's] [raw footage] [afternoon]," "[zona pellucida]," "Fincher-esque," "[Alzheimer's] [anatomy of an action as lost text],"[poem w/first line after the Ojibway]," "[marriage is the abattoir & a girlfriend just another set of lips to smoke with], "[WHAT IS THE WOOLY BULLY & WILL IT COME AGAIN]," "[schema geometrica] [W/JOHN KEATS’ DEATH MASK & A PYRAMID & A CAT]," "[BOX OF LIGHT W/EARLY A-BOMB TEST] or [PORTRAIT OF MY KAIJU BIRTH AS DIRECTED BY ISHIRO HONDA]," "[mosaic] [divina commedia] [with a Boxer in It]," "[Waiting for the End of the World with Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass]," "[Too Young to Die] [Too Young to Rock ‘n’ Roll]"
In the store: [q / lear] (chapbook), schema geometrica (book), Flesh-plastique (book)
Interviews: a conversation about his chapbook [q / lear], a conversation about Flesh-plastique

Dennis Hinrichsen’s most recent work is This Is Where I Live I Have Nowhere Else To Go, winner of Grid Poetry Prize for 2020. His previous publications include [q / lear], a chapbook from Green Linden Press, Skin Music, winner of the 2014 Michael Waters Poetry Prize from Southern Indiana Review Press, Rip-tooth (2010 Tampa Poetry Prize), Kurosawa’s Dog (2008 FIELD Poetry Prize), and Detail from The Garden of Earthly Delights (1999 Akron Poetry Prize). He has new poems appearing and/or forthcoming in The American Journal of Poetry, American Poetry Journal, Canary, I-70 Review, MacQueen’s Quinterly, The Maine Review, The Night Heron Barks, Triggerfish Critical Review, and Tinderbox Poetry Journal. From May 2017 – April 2019, he served as the first Poet Laureate of the Greater Lansing [MI] area.

ISSN 2472-338X
© 2020