Perseus Academic: The Devil's Garden by Adrian Matejka

Using musical allusion and metaphor, juxtaposing history and autobiography, Matejka navigates a triracial identity. In these poems, having too many heritages means having no heritage at all. As a result, cultural identifiers—be they afros, war paint, or William Shatner—take the place of identity. Vibrant narrative lyrics use image as riff, syllable as note, to improvise on a personal history severed from tradition.

Betwixt and Between

Miscegenation’s capitol

is the mule. Not quite horse,

almost donkey. No useful

erection to speak of.

In any unnatural concoction,

somebody’s got to take

the blame. Freud would say

credit the mother if props

are necessary.

Mulattos

are human mules—half

black, most times more

than half white—misogynous

on a good day. All the while,

impotent between tribes.

Blame: gift of the exotic,

like Hendrix opening

for the Monkees, or Othello

key holed by Iago. Blessed

be he with the hybrid vigor

of melanin, arrested between

the sun and the sun.

Reading Adrian Matejka’s amazing debut, I was left with the feeling that American Poetry was at last beginning to catch up with early twenty-first century American life. He has written the first serious songs from a world that’s about to make itself felt and known.—Cornelius Eady