El libro Clay de David Groff fue seleccionado por Michael Waters como el ganador del premio Louise Bogan y publicado en 2013 por Trio House Press. Su colección anterior, Theory of Devolution publicada en 2002 por University of Illinois Press, fue escogida por Mark Doty para hacer parte de [The] National Poetry Series. Ambos libros fueron finalistas en el premio Lambda. David ha coeditado dos antologías, la ganadora del premio Lambda Who’s Yer Daddy?: Gay Writers Celebrate Their Mentors y Forerunners (University of Wisconsin Press) and Persistent Voices: Poetry by Writers Lost to AIDS (Alyson). En nombre de su amigo Robin Hardy, terminó el libro The Crisis of Desire: AIDS and the Fate of Gay Brotherhood que fue publicado por Houghton Mifflin y University of Minnesota Press. Recibió un MFA del Iowa Writers Workshop y un MA en Inglés de la Universidad de Iowa. Es editor independiente, consultor de publicaciones y enseña en el programa de maestría en escritura creativa (MFA) en The City College of New York.
CLAY’S FACE IS
a thinned blade used hard,
scalpel and scalpel’s consequence,
boxers in the clinch, squeezing out inessence
until blade or virus gasps, respires.
His labial skin swags him: the pills’
hateful miracle strains fat.
He smiles: the basset bounds.
He unsmiles: his face falls but not in disappointment.
His head shows skull, a study in bone,
honed to St. Jerome’s buzzkill pleasure.
He is wartime, scorched earth,
his turf wasted craters the generals’ boys
die for. Its shrubs inhale the smoke,
squirm for the sun, root for fluid.
His eyes, the sentry’s lookout, look out:
he knows his face is a trench afire.
He grins with all his arrows of teeth,
he opens his mouth, he says Stick out your tongue.
Clay’s Face Is: Originally appeared in Clay, Trio House Press, 2013.
TAPFNY – The Americas Poetry Festival of New York