perhaps the Most Formative poem for me, so many of my favorite lines come from it. that said, content warning below for the n-word. i skipped the entire line when reading it, because a white girl in 2026 should absolutely not be saying it, but i elected to share images of the text in its little pocket poets book - partially because the way the type is set up is also Formative and partially because i wanted to keep it as ginsberg wrote it.
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