Kevin Baietto Dr. Cotter Forms of Lit November 1, 2015 In the poem Talk the point of view is told in the first person by the author Terrance Hayes. Terrance Hayes was born in 1971 in Columbia, South Carolina. He not only is a writer but a successful artist and athlete as well. Hayes attended Coker College where he succeeded in his athletic success and earned his bachelor’s degree. Then received his M.F.A at the University of Pittsburgh. He has won several awards for his work such as his most recent, light head, which won the National Book Award in Poetry in 2010. Now he is a professor at his Alma Mater University of Pittsburgh teaching creative writing. Hayes tries to get the audience to look at thing in a different angle then most poets and can let them relate easier. Hayes talks about the problems of racism in Talk through a poplar experience that doesn’t have to do with slavery or segregation. Hayes is narrating the poem as if it is based on a true story or a possible story that could have happened. In the first stanza he paints us a picture that him and his white friend, M, were in the locker room alone. Hayes impersonated M.L.K and Ronald Reagan, which gave M the idea that it was alright for him to say "Talk like a nigger now." Reading that line the reader may think that an altercation would occur but the narrator didn 't react that way. Instead he stayed in a silent shock of what he heard. M didn 't repeat himself. Whatever just happened the narrator had to put it