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.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
"L. Lamar Wilson reinvents the memoir in verse with the tour de force of his Sacrilegion."
—A. Van Jordan