She Who Comes With Her Own Things
for beau willie brown

We were in the clearing
a tangle of ex-slaves
having church or telling lies
barefoot in the dust.
I thought I saw your silver nose ring
catch the sun and beckon
through the crowd.

Menfolk sat on tree stumps
drinking lemonade and slapping knees,
Is he your solider? Is he your lover, your rapist?
Black feet stomped the grass flat
and I saw your swirl of colors
winding to the drums
Are these your fathers?
Your ankles were fleabitten and wrapped
in bells.

The colored children picked up your rainbow ribbons
and wound them round the maypole
So many black bodies with loudly beating hearts
and tambourines.
I saw you dancing
I wanted to ask you questions
but was ashamed to interrupt,
your head back, your eyes closed
your golden braids bouncing gainst your shoulder
blades and your poems tied in bright scarves
swaying round your waist.

Shug Avery stepped up on a tree stump
and started singing blues.
Half-braided women watched
and picked their scalps.

and you weren’t even startled
when I tugged at the ragged hem
of your patchwork skirts.
I asked you to show me the ghost
of the soldier and you said come on
as if I had just asked you to show me
the ladies room.

We squeezed through the bodies
packed liked a parade
breathless smiles and throaty songs
You smelled of talcum and patchouli
loose breasts pressed against my back
thrusting me through the throng, the carnavale
It was a revival, it was an orgy, juneteenth
and somewhere he was crouching
still waiting for an all clear
for the sound to come back to his ears
Is he your soldier?
Your lover? Your monster?

We waded through the sweating torsos
Over the tops of heads I saw Shug’s voice
fluttering to the feet
of her wide-eyed, wet-lipped admirers
like dollar bills.
And then you were gone.

I wanted to call after you
but your name is too sacred for a scream
and you wouldn’t hear me anyway
over the tapestry of sound
old men with smiling beards
pounding the taut hides of djembes
maracas and hymnals
and Shug Avery’s blues
and all the clapping hands
of every black child that ever was

A smear of gold glinted
between the necks of breathless black boys
your braids lashing all that stepped too close
and you weren’t even startled
when I lowered my eyes and tugged
the colored scarves swaying at your waist
I asked you to show me the ghost of the soldier
and you said come on

This time I did not let go
to the rainbow tied in scarves
swirling around your skirts.
You took me to him.
He was crying in the shade
away from all the singing.
Is he your monster? Your valentine?
You shook him awake from the sobs
and demanded he shake my hand.

pillory

Her crimson frills thrashed and slashed
through the dull milk predawn glow.
My bodice pinched and itched and I
yanked her fragile alabaster wrist.

Mother, she said, mother, will he
come? and I yanked her again for silence.
My bonnet knotted beneath my flagging chin
rubbed and blistered and I thumbed

it untied. A wound whipped open
in the sky. It bled that dreaded letter
and my mouth swallowed all the air
that stilled around us. It was not a scream

but I wish it had been. The blacksmith
across the square put out his fire
and all the town was black. Three
bloody cuts spilled red upon the stars

and then there were no stars.
Just the dusky violet black
and the bloody violent splash
carved into the flesh of night.

She pointed
but I smacked her tiny mouth
before she could say it
and rosebuds bloomed her lips.

And there he was
stumbling toward us in the dust.
Father, she said, father,
you’re bleeding father.

But he could not hear her yet.
His face was cold wax glossed with sweat
and his pearl buttons glinted
like smiles down his open blouse.

He tilted up his chin
lined it with where the moon had been.
Was it a grimace or a grin?
And then I saw it.

The dust caked
the drops that had fallen to his boots.
It dribbled over the brass buckle of his belt.
His ruffled shirt rusted and red.

I beg the balm of the moon to spill
on our ripped and ragged skins.
And if Christ went to His Father
with his body scarred and scarlet

then so shall we, us three.