“Love Poem that Ends at Popeyes”: Five Questions for Destiny O. Birdsong
Destiny O. Birdsong is an African American poet born in 1981 in Louisiana and currently lives in Nashville. She attended Fisk University, where she received her BA in English and history, and Vanderbilt University, where she received her MFA in poetry and PhD in English. Over time, some hallmarks of her work have become exploring topics such as violence that stems from racism, feminism, and the African American experience. Some of her most prominent works include her poetry collection, Negotiations (2020), and her first novel, Nobody’s Magic (2022), and her work has been featured in places such as The Paris Review and African American Review.
When reading Best American Poetry 2021, Birdsong’s “Love Poem that Ends at Popeyes” stood out to us because of its unique word spacing, connecting and separating words to communicate Birdsong’s raw emotions and almost rant-like style, unlike the traditional style of poetry. It explores the topics of love and desperation, all while using thought provoking motifs and symbols such as flowers and even the fast food chain of Popeye’s. This poem really felt like a maze to go through, where we were finding new meanings behind it with each read. [Editor Natalie Treacy contributed to this interview.]
I noticed interesting spacing between words in your poem “Love Poem that Ends at Popeyes. ” What is the meaning behind this?
Some poets do this to indicate moments when a person reading the poem should take a breath, but here, I wanted to do that and more: I wanted there to be visual space on the page. I wanted the poem to feel a bit like a puzzle the reader has to put together with their eyes as they go along, which, for me, is one of the metaphors of the piece. The speaker herself is piecing together what she thinks and feels about love, so the reader is expected to do the same.
Where was this poem going when it started and how did it evolve as you wrote it?
You know, I can’t say I was sure I knew where it was going when I began writing it, but for me that is what makes art so magical. You don’t always know; you simply begin with an idea or a line and you let the thing take the shape it wants. Then, after that, you revise it and make it into something the world can appreciate. The interesting thing about this poem, however, is that I wrote it in one take and for the most part, all of the words in the first draft ended up in the final draft. Only the spacing and line breaks are new. Writing poetry doesn’t always happen like that for me, but when it does, it’s pretty awesome.
Your poem “Love Poem that Ends at Popeyes” has an interesting take on flowers. Is there a deeper meaning to this analysis of the act of gifting flowers? If so, what is this meaning?
I wrote the poem in February, but I’d been seeing lots of flowers around, mostly because it was Valentine’s Day, and giving flowers is a near-universal sign of love. So, I’d been seeing lots of bouquets at the grocery store and on television commercials, and shortly before I wrote it, I’d been at a writer’s residency where they sometimes put fresh flowers on the dining room tables for us. One day I came to dinner and there were daffodils, which is how they wound up in the poem.
Was this poem written close to the event described or long after? If it was written long after, what changed from your original experience of this moment to your reflection when writing this poem?
This was definitely a spur-of-the-moment kind of poem. The lines about being at home listening to the rain and lying in bed thinking about my next meal are literally where I was and what I was doing in the moment I began writing it. It also references someone I had a crush on at the time, so all of it was very current. That’s also something that doesn’t happen all the time with my work. I often need time to process things before I write about them, but in this case, it was very much a real-time experience.
Is there a deeper meaning to using the food chain Popeyes in your poem and making it such a prominent part?
Yes and no! I do love that place, and earlier that day I’d said to someone online: “I want to write a poem about Popeyes.” It was mostly a joke until I started writing the love poem. I’m from Louisiana, and there are Popeyes all over back home, but it was only recently (maybe in the past decade or so) that I started to see them where I live in Tennessee, and at the time, I didn’t live close to one. So I just thought it’d be fun to write about a place I missed.
At the same time, in terms of metaphor, I think the fast food motif worked well, and I knew when I ended the poem on those lines that that’s exactly where I needed to end it. If you’ve ever been to Popeyes, sometimes you order a type of chicken that they don’t have ready (for me, it’s always the spicy blend, and dark meat). So they’ll ask you if you want to wait for it, probably in hopes that you’ll just take what they have. But because I’m gluten sensitive, going there is usually a rare treat, so I always say I’m willing to wait for exactly what I want. And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to understand that that’s also a healthy way for me to look at love. It’s okay to say no to something I don’t want, and it’s okay to wait on what I do. And in the meantime, it’s okay to be happy where I am.
Why does the speaker feel such mixed emotions throughout the poem?
You know, I think that’s the nature of crushes and having feelings for someone. It’s not always just the person you’re interested in; sometimes, that interest is related to other things, like the experiences you’ve had, or what that person might represent for you. Much of the poem is about me trying to figure out how I feel about love: not just about the possibility with someone new, but what love has meant to me in the past, and what I’d like for myself in the future. Spoiler alert: I’m still figuring that stuff out!