Paula Wilson
whatever scholar
you might be
in whatever tortured
discipline
if you please
stop saying
the Black body
stop
arrest yourself
i’m a person
didn’t you hear me
the first time
i asked
who
don’t you know
i’m not
what
i’m a Black human
standing next
to another
Black human
we are a riot
a song of humanity
amassing under
a street light
calling
to our kindred
join us
we are gathered
in history’s
insistence
our footprints beckoning
i’m not a theory
of some
ivory tower
even in new england
don’t call me
the Black body
as if i were
a dead husk
a container of day-old
meat
with no brain
no bejeweled cells
no tongue speckled
with elder-story
no memory
no rememory
Click here to download the PDF.