This Is What I Know of Filth1
for Senator Tom Woods


This is What I Know of Filth is a response to Oklahoma Senator Tom Woods’ response to a constituent asking what would be done about the bullying that led to Nex Benedict’s death: “I represent a constituency that doesn’t want that filth in Oklahoma.” The poem is to be printed double-sided and flipped vertically, or held up to a mirror, to read the endnote.

Merrick Sloane is a neuro-Queer 90’s kid and nonbinary poet, editor, and researcher from Oklahoma who’s a fan of expletives and second languages. They hold an MFA in poetry from University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Merrick’s work has appeared in The Central Dissent: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality, BLEACH!, citizen trans* {project}, and is forthcoming in Puerto del Sol and Arcana Poetry Press’s Roots & Ruin anthology. In 2025, Merrick’s poetry was selected as a winner of the Garden Party Collective’s Neurodivergent / Intersectional contest and the AWP Intro Journal Awards. Merrick writes so that others may feel radically loved.