Alternate universe in which my professor asks if anyone in the room….

By Arianna Monet
Alternate universe in which my professor asks if anyone in the room can define the word codeswitching, and I do not wait for someone else to answer.

I say Well, it is a compound word, so..

Code. Noun.
A system of marking things with different colors
as a means of identification.

&

Switch. Noun.
A device for making and breaking
connections in an electrical circuit.

Meaning
To be Black in America is to keep a lightswitch under your tongue.
To be a circuitboard constantly flickering between multiple sets of syntax.

Or

Code. Verb.
To convert a message in order to convey a secret meaning.
Example: when my white friends can’t make sense of the language I’m using
and I do not explain it to them.
When everyone who needs to understand me
already knows exactly what I said.

Switch. Verb.
To swap one thing out for another
Like changing clothes –
Pull on my white girl voice to answer the phones at work.
Line my pockets with ain’t and finna and the habitual be.

Code. Noun.
A set of conventions governing behavior or activity in a particular sphere.
Example: the way that ain’t isn’t recognized in the Microsoft dictionary.
Example: the way that white people still out here pretending
it ain’t been a word for centuries.

Or

Code. Verb.
To express meaning in an indirect or euphemistic way.
Example: when white people call me articulate.

Or

Code. Verb.
To computerize.

But then I remember

Switch. Noun.
A slender, flexible shoot cut from a tree
And I think my mouth must be a forest, like
I open my mouth to speak and a burst of leaves tumbles out.
A copse of saplings. An orchard of vernacular where my tongue should be..

I think maybe I was right the first time.
Maybe I am something neon and flickering,
child of bottled lightning and electrical tape.
Maybe my afro is just a tangle of wires.
I say Black girl magic three times
and watch all the light spill out of my mouth.
Maybe I am a glowing sentient lightbulb,
the brightest thing in the room
Bleeding white-hot fluorescence and waiting

when I feel like it,

To make everything go black.

Listen as Arianna Monet reads “Alternate universe in which my professor asks if anyone in the room can define the word codeswitching, and I do not wait for someone else to answer.”

Added: Thursday, October 6, 2022 / Used with permission

Arianna Monet (she/they) is a queer Black poet and strawberry ice cream enthusiast from eastern Massachusetts. Her work can be found in What Are Birds? Journal, FreezeRay Poetry, and elsewhere. Arianna is also a 2022 Zoeglossia Fellow, and was a member of the 2019 Boston Poetry Slam Team.

Image Description of Photo of Arianna Monet: Arianna Monet a dark-skinned Black femme in front of a grassy background. She is wearing a white dress and a necklace with deep blue stones. There is a marigold tucked into her dark curly hair which falls just to her shoulders.

Other poems by this author