Here
a post cave canem X lamentation

By Shia Shabazz

"I am no one again
Again I am no one
No one again am I
I am no one again.

I am not free again
Again I am not free
Free, I am not
I am not free again.”
 - Laurie Carlos


there is no parade of sun-soaked daylilies
trumpeting me, bowing in perfumed breeze
like faithful lovers longing for attention.

there are no rooms filled with butterflies
fluttering in the muse of word and rhythm
hearkening my late night, first morning poems.

there are no fried chicken bones to gnaw
no watermelon rinds to suck clean of red and juice
no soul train lines for shimmy or harlem shake.

here,
at the center of this cog
amid endless rows of metal frames and padded walls
where artificial air turns bodies cold
hums an elegy for the living
who shuffle from tasks to terminal,
there is only memory.




Copyright © Shia Shabazz. All right reserved. Used by permission of the author

photo

Co-founder of The Gibbous Moon Collective, Shia Shabazz's works have been widely published and anthologized. Her work has been featured in From My Mother's Hands - a collection of narratives from Texas women and their mothers - and Red Boots and Attitude: The Spirit of Texas Women Writers, along with many other poetry publications. Her poem, Inquisition, was selected as a finalist in the Lois Cranston Memborial Poetry Prize for Calyx Journal. Notable screenwriting mentions include finalist placement in the 2005 Tribeca All Access Connects Program, the 2005 Moondance Screenplay Competition, the 2004 Sundance Screenwriters' Lab, and the 2004 IndieScript Screenwriters' Competition for her fourth screenplay, the MARMALADE.


Copyright © 1997-2006 by Cave Canem Foundation, Inc.

HOME | CONTACT | TOP | NEXT POEM