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Sunday, February 20, 2022

Let This Gestate

 
Billie Holiday
—Public Domain Photo


you can say that again, billie
—Evie Shockley
 
southern women serve strife     keep lines of pride open
trees are not taller than these broad vessels    femmes who
bear fully armored knights   clinking from the womb     but
a night in whining ardor    means black woman compelled     how
strange     brown vassal on a bed of green needles     ingests the
fruit of georgia     let that gestate     but be-gets no child of the south
 
blood tells the story     do you salute old gory    were you born
on a white horse or a black ass    everything depends upon
the way your rusty lifeflow writes     sutpenmanship   if it
leaves blond scribbled across your scalp    hurray
and blue inscribed in your eyes      praise the cause    your literary
blood wins the gene pool     it’s a prize     hide your mama     baby
at worst you’re a breast-seller     compelling octorune     but
the best cellars are dark and earthy     humid places where fears take
root     and grow up to be cowboys    yee-haw

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Today’s poem by Evie Shockley is in celebration of Black History Month. For episodes of NPR’s "Poetry in America", including an exploration of this poem, go to video.wgcu.org/video/you-can-say-that-again-billie-by-evie-shockley-jpvgu9/. Note that Shockley’s poem is an acrostic (read the first word of each line, going down) built on the first two lines of the Billie Holiday song, “Strange Fruit” (www.history.com/news/billie-holiday-strange-fruit-lynchings AND/OR www.biography.com/musician/billie-holiday?li_source=LI&li_medium=m2m-rcw-history/).

Today (2/20), 3pm, Poets Club of Lincoln presents James Shuman, poet and current chair of the editorial board of
Song of the San Joaquin, and author of the chapbook, Family Album (2018). Open mic will follow. Zoom: us02web.zoom.us/j/87466015982 (Meeting ID: 874 6601 5982; Passcode: 766105). Host: David Anderson.

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—Medusa
 
 
 
 Evie Shockley
—Public Domain Photo
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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