— after a line by wanda coleman

by Evie Shockley

atlantic blues, salt-safe of african
bones, a brittle white
cache of black history :: lucille clifton’s
dahomey ancestors & their defiant deaths
equipping her—& me—with great
fortitude :: o blue hydrangeas of anne spencer’s
garden, o wisteria-lined, grape-vined
haven from lynchburg :: hughes’s harlem
incoming, complete with street slang,
jump-rope rhymes chanted by world-wise
kids, & deferred dreams indigoloud along lenox avenue :: goddam
mississippi & its muddy blues, a child’s
nightmare & a belated national
outcry, o nina, o tongue, gifted & black ::
phillis wheatley peters’ post-middle-passage
quill-pen :: the runagates recalled by
robert hayden, rising, flying, making
spirituals mean :: texas grotesque, its
truck-dragging fuckery & bland denials :: our
urban sequester & subsequent expulsion ::
visiting day at the prison industrial complex,
where families go to try :: so many
x’s marking so many blots, our inky
yesteryears & cloudy future :: o wanda :: o
zone of afroblues, asymptotic to afrojoy

Poem copyright 2024 by Evie Shockley. All rights reserved.

See two more poems from Evie Shockley debuted on The Fight & The Fiddle: “décima on the fabric of time :: sirius, polaris,”  and  “composition.”

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Read more in this issue: Interview | Critical Essay | Writing Prompt