She knows that she sits
on foreign soil, Americanah
when I look at her picture
she is black like me
frozen in time
in this closed city
open only to pale shadows
witnessing the unkindness
of these wispy ghosts
who scream how dare the sun rise
on your hopes & dreams
They want me to sign
over my soul & join
the woman in the portrait
in oblivion of black ink
while forever remembering
the more beautiful & terrible history
of our people, ancestors who wanted
to be more than silent sentries
on a wall
Shirley Jones-Luke is a poet and a writer of color. Ms. Luke lives in Boston, Massachusetts (USA). She has an MFA from Emerson College. Her work has appeared in Adanna, Adelaide Magazine, Cadaverous, Deluge and The Offbeat. Shirley will attend VONA and Tin House workshops this summer.
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