In this transformation poem, a police officer is described through the tools of his trade. I utilised an erasure method for sampling a transcript from On the Media podcast.

Source: Who is Karen and Why Does She Keep Calling the Police on Black Men

This poem began in a notebook and was written in ink. I did my editing in a notebook before moving to unlined paper. I keep various notebooks at home and at school; some notebooks are for 'morning pages' (Julia Cameron) or dreams (on my nightstand) and I keep a model interactive notebook for writing with my students. Much of my writing comes out of the making lists; good vs. bad ideas, things I wonder about, rooms in the homes I've lived etc—these lists I keep for myself and have students create in their notebooks. After writing, I usually share out with my class or in this case with my family the final draft—if not earlier ones. I made a list of 12 things (smell of tear gas, the cut of glass, sirens...) to capture the sensual and physical vocabulary I might need. Writing by hand makes it easier to embody the words and images often—possibly because I sometime act out the word gesturally and use the white space of the page with more variability.

My inspiration was to capture some the chaos and videos of police and looting in Los Angeles where I used to live.

At first, I wanted to write a poem of bitterness—but what to be bitter about? I am not in America and I am not black so how to be authentic was important.

I used another method of erasure—somewhat similar the cut-up method of Burroughs/Gysin or to what Marianne Moore did in poetry—to quote directly into your poem from another source which in this was a podcast on the memes of white women or men who call the police on black people and the danger of 'living while black.'

WNYC's On the Media podcast segment "Boiling Point" transcript in which erasure method (blacking out word) for sampling content quoted in the poem. Potato stamps are featured on top.

My main conceit was one of transformation—I would take the tools and parts that a police officer carries so that he/she would become those parts and tools. So there a listing of the weapons and clothes. I wanted to include the name memes that are part of this narrative—Central Park Karen, Barbecue Becky...etc.

First page of poem, "Carrier of the Badge" with potato stamp markings—Babayin "a' reversed added for design

Though I didn't have to use the potato printing technique for this. I found the idea interesting and I wanted to do something with it. I used the a character for vowel sound 'A' in Baybayin (Philippine native writing system of Luzon island where I live). A could stand of America or for something else—I was looking for another way to experience or dispel the bitterness and confusion. This symbol functions like a sigil grounding me somewhat where I live but also imprinting another dimension to the text. The reversing of the Baybayin character was unintentional—I had not considered how that would occur in the printing process.

Making the potato printing took some effort, it became a family activity due to the interactivity—my son contributed a 'Z' stamp from his name Zen. I only did one letter and I would have wanted to do more on each potato section. I considered the word 'filth' which is a derogatory British term for police, however, my anger at the police is only part of the frustration now. I am also angry with my compulsion to watch the videos on social media and youtube of the violence—from George Floyd to the police confrontations. So printing just one letter and using was a method to try it albeit for design or less than clear reasons.

Second page of transformation poem.