For Some Slight I Can't Quite Recall

This poem, written as a single sentence, looks back on an incident of childhood violence from an insightful remove. The poet gives grace to the “I” of the poem by linking the urge to violence with previous acts (“the brute tutelage / of years fighting the neighbor kids”). Yet Gay is also brutal in his self-reflection, describing the scene as “the stupid / and cruel watching the weak and small.” The poem tackles themes of power and generational trauma in a visceral way with an unflinching poetic voice.