L. LAMAR WILSON
~after Herman "Sun Ra" Blount and
Ralpho Waldo Ellison, with thanks to
E. Patrick Johnson and Sharon P. Holland
A man is a woman inside
Waiting to come home.
A man inside a woman is
A mother-of-pearl, a wading
Handmaiden, inside a man
Made prison, prism of light.
At the end of that tunnel: new birth.
New berth? Tunnel to that end,
Light the prism, prison-break
Everyman’s woe. Inside
Every man lies. The seed of
Mother’s tears petaled, pearled.
Seven weeks whole. Wonderfully
She. Made us a beauty. Inside.
Ussin. Us/sin. Us>sin. Us>skin.
Us skin & sin less & iridescent.
All spirit, no shade, no shame.
Liminal. Limn it all. One nation
Undone. <Godless. Now what?
O Amma, may I eye inside
The we we was. Decode
The cipher we forgot: To Whom
It May Concern, Keep This Nigger-boy Running.
O woe man-cum-woman hater,
O nacre, O negus, never a nigger,
Cry out & She will rise. Inside us.
She’s waiting, black (wo)man,
Stop running. Come home.
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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
"L. Lamar Wilson reinvents the memoir in verse with the tour de force of his Sacrilegion."
—A. Van Jordan