In “A Chorus of Ghosts,” the phrase “I can’t stand myself when you touch me” is borrowed from James Brown and his record of the same name.
“The Stages of Harriet” is conceptually indebted to Anne-Marie Turza’s poem “The Glass Case.”
“Teacher” was inspired by Pasha Malla’s translation of Agota Kristof’s short story “The Teachers,” published in the fall 2017 issue of The New Quarterly.
“I Know You Are You, and Real” is a phrase from Jean Valentine’s poem “X.”
“Liquid Swords” is a title borrowed from GZA, a.k.a The Genius.
In “Factory Meat VI,” the phrase “You’re so revolutionary” is taken from Ryan Trecartin’s 2004 video A Family Finds Entertainment.
“I Am Without Money, Pity, or Time” is dedicated with deepest love and gratitude to M. T. And, within it, the phrase “I cannot see what waves are at my feet” is intended to echo John Keats’s “I cannot see what flowers are at my feet.”
In “Slumber Party /// Spectral Trace,” Harriet’s line “I CARRY WITHIN ME A NAMELESS SORROW THAT I CANNOT EXPEL!” is indebted to a line by Emily Berry, “I carry inside me the trace of a threat that I cannot discharge,” from her poem “The End.”
“Rise, and greet your terrible / New being” is intended to recall the lines “O lullaby, with your daughter, and the innocence / Of your cold feet, greet a terrible new being” from “The Poem’s Gift” by Stéphane Mallarmé, translated by A. S. Kline.