“Wholly One: Still” Annotated
Who was she?[1]
The one in the forgotten African language where we could have said exactly what we meant[2]
for she is a holy one[3]
Out here the surf rewrites our silences.[4]
for worship. maybe my mother’s coffee cup with lipstick[5]
the voice dynamic, masterful like hieroglyphics[6]
Justice is not a pendulum it is not a hammer it is not a bandage[7]
What god can unlatch its jaw and swallow me whole?[8]
What wasn’t trouble
I troubled.[9]
yeah girl. And it happened, feeling a rogue breeze[10]
pump fake & fast break must be breakfast brown[11]
And I don’t think for a second that we won’t survive this.[12]
the red doves tumbling from the torsos–the bodies[13]
Calluses fuse into a leather of endurance.[14]
This is how we share our secrets now[15]
Together, we bake everyday pains into guilty pleasures.[16]
his neck. My skin, my flesh, its power of resistance[17]
To entirely finish is water entering water.[18]
What is it you need when you’re fleeing your home?[19]
my woman, I name her as if she is mine,[20]
an engine.[21]
The field widens before it clichés.[22]
Justice is not a pendulum it is not a hammer it is not a bandage[23]
we are fabulous.[24]
& we still are.[25]
[1] “Another Clearing of the Land” – Tara Betts (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 85) – Selected by Jim Smethurst
[2] “90 poems I didn’t write for you” – Alexis Pauline Gumbs (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 38) – Selected by Dave Wooley
[3] “For Sister Gwen Brooks” – Sonia Sanchez (Furious Flower, 2004 p. 65) – Selected by Carmin Wong
[4] “Hands” – Safiya Sinclair (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 305) – Selected by Shauna M. Morgan
[5] “which art? which fact?” – Nate Marshall (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 58) – Selected by Paul Somers
[6] “Boxing Arethas–thinking of the Queen of Soul” – Curtis L. Crisler (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 34) – Selected by Adrienne Danyelle Oliver
[7] “Let My Anger Be the Celebration We Were Never Supposed to Have” – Natasha Oladokun (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 118) – Selected by Lauren K. Alleyne
[8] “Exit Wound.” – Kevin Simmonds (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 267) – Selected by Teri Ellen Cross Davis
[9] “Aeration” – Taylor Johnson (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 109) – Selected by Tyree Daye
[10] “When the Therapist Asks You to Recount, You Have to Say It” – Aricka Foreman (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 100) – Selected by Angel C. Dye
[11] “#notorious” – T’ai Freedom Ford (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 99) – Selected by Hayes Davis
[12] “I Don’t Think for a Second That We Won’t Survive This” – Abdul Ali (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 21) – Selected by Dana Williams
[13] “Preacher Crow’s Sermon on the Ark of Bones” – Dexter L. Booth (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 165) – Selected by allia abdullah-matta
[14] “How the Body Remembers” – Darlene Anita Scott (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 264) – Selected by Mary Beth Cancienne
[15] “Girl with the golden contacts at the Walmart” – Opal Moore (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 115) – Selected by Susan Facknitz
[16] “Bread Pudding Grandmamma” – Darrel Alejandro Holnes (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 47) – Selected by T.J. Hendrix
[17] “To the Old Square” – Chanda Feldman (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 192) – Selected by L. Renee
[18] “Aubade” – Amber Flora Thomas (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 307) – Selected by Shameka Cunningham
[19] “We Put So Much Faith in the Power of Doors” – Jacqueline Jones LaMon (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 55) – Selected by L. Lamar Wilson
[20] “Night” – Reginald Dwayne Betts (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 83) – Selected by Leona Sevick
[21] “How I Wish I Could Be as Happy as Zaytoven Playing Piano for Gucci on NPR, Tiny Desk” – Nabila Lovelace (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 252) – Selected by Anastacia-Renee
[22] “If not memory–” – Taylor Johnson (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 110) – Selected by Ariana Benson
[23] “Let My Anger Be the Celebration We Were Never Supposed to Have” – Natasha Oladokun (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 118) – Selected by McKinley E. Melton
[24] – Selected by Meta DuEwa Jones
[25] “which art? which fact?” – Nate Marshall (Furious Flower, 2019 p. 58) – Selected by Brian Hannon
