"For I Will Consider Your Crazy Cute Mustang" by Nada Feris
Mini-Portraits of America: Day in the Life
For the flag of the Confederacy ruffles on the side of a dingy trailer selling cowboy
belts and hats.
For I gaze as people bustle around food counters to purchase caramelized popcorn,
pulled pork, and chili French fries.
For the pip-squeaking youngsters take turns riding the mechanical bull.
For the air smells like horse manure and good ol’ American food fried to jubilance.
It is slapped into cardboard boxes and stuffed in plastic wraps.
We trudge through crowds of red faces and pointed boots until we find our way to the metal benches.
For I was invited to a Tri-State Rodeo in Fort Madison with writers from different countries.
For we were attending a writing residency, and the organizers explain that the roots of
American rodeo go back to the 1800s.
We don’t mention slavery.
It makes them uncomfortable.
After all, we were there to learn what democracy looks like so we don’t get bombed
afterward.
We have also selfishly been considering what it means to be successful.
Every cowboy at the rodeo is wearing different colored chaps.
After the cannon blast, our show begins with a delicate descent.
From the blue above, a skydiver drops, proud of his parachute.
The Star-Spangled Banner, upon landing on the ground, falls flat on dun-colored earth.
Our charismatic host bows his head and prays first to Jesus Christ, then to the American military.
And out of a white limo emerges the most celebrated cowboys.
This limo will later vacate the showground and a red carpet roll out.
Imagine our arched eyebrows when prancing foals pour out of the long white vehicle, and
through a loud megaphone the host proclaims: “These are the world’s wildest
beasts. They’re destined to bring new cowboys future fame.”
But if there are two sides to every pageantry, how can I grieve the constellations upon constellations of dead and dying stars?
Nada Faris is a writer and literary translator from Kuwait. In 2013, she was invited to the US as part of the International Writers’ Program, where I encountered several “distinctly American pastimes.”
Though I’m a vegetarian, I was fascinated by the rodeo, hence, I wanted to write a poem that captured its Americanness from an outsider’s perspective -- one that is nevertheless implicated by the very dynamics they criticise. I wanted to draw the setting and paint a picture, and build a narrative arc with rising action and a climax. However, I wanted the piece to remain rooted in poetry, so I framed it using anaphora and modeled it after Christopher Smart’s style in “For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry,” essentially claiming that the speaker, the outsider, is a compromised narrator and should not be seen as the voice of reason. Smart, after all, ended up in a mental asylum.
Nada Faris’s books include FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH (Vine Leaves Press, 2016), a semi-finalist in the 2016 Vine Leaves Vignette Collection Award, and MISCHIEF DIARY (HBKU, 2018), a collection of humorous short stories aimed at a young adult audience. In 2018, she collaborated with Kuwaiti visual artist Maha Al-Asaker on WOMEN OF KUWAIT (Daylight, 2019), a finalist in the Lucie Photobook Award. And, in 2024, I translated Bothayna Al-Essa’s Arabic novel LOST IN MECCA, which was shortlisted for the 2024 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation and named a Notable Translation by World Literature Today. For more about Nada, you can visit my website: www.nadafaris.com