A Bell, Still Unrung by Safiya Sinclair

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend December 15, 2016   A Bell, Still Unrung   Safiya Sinclair

She daily effuses the close-mouthed tantrum of her fevers.   Hog-tied and lunatic.                          Born toothsome,  unholy. Born uppity.              Blue-jawed and out-order.    Watched her sculptor                    split her bitter seam                        with his scalding knife; mauled through the errant                 flesh of her nature   and hemorrhaged mercury,  molted snakeroot, a smoke            of weeping silver.    She, accused. Sprung from the head  of a thousand-fisted   wretch or a blood-dark                                    cosmos undoubling her bound body.                       Vexed shrew. Blight of moon.          She, armory. Pitched-milk pours from her gold oracular.   Bred in her nest a lone                           grenade, prized, unpried its force-ripe wound.   She, disease. Often bruised to brush the joy of anything. Zombic. Un-groomed.         Her night slinks open  its sliding pin. One by one these loose hopes   harpoon themselves in, small-ghosts alighting at her unwhoring.       She, infirmary. God's swallowed lantern, tar-hair and thick.   Her black torchstruck. A kindling stick. No sinkle-bible fix   to cure this burning. Shrill hell. Jezebel.   Isn't it lonely.            Copyright © 2016 Safiya Sinclair. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "Since the invention of the first word, the female body has been a constant site of fear and violence, in religion and myth, in our common language. So many words and phrases in our daily vernacular are pervasive weapons struck against womanhood, aimed to demean and diminish. By going back to the source of this language and examining its violence, both linguistic and literal, both historic and modern, and by inhabiting some of the ways the female body has been seen as monstrous and dangerous over time, I had hoped to subvert these sinister ideas. Instead, I found myself wandering alone in a more treacherous poem—coming to the stark realization that this body is the most overlooked body in the world—that being born a black woman is the original site of exile." —Safiya Sinclair   Safiya Sinclair is the author of Cannibal (University of Nebraska Press, 2016). She is a doctoral fellow in the Literature and Creative Writing PhD program at the University of Southern California and lives in Los Angeles.   Photo credit: Willy Somma   Poetry by Sinclair   Cannibal (University of Nebraska Press, 2016)  "Reason" by Robin Coste Lewis "Omens" by Cecilia Llompart "Seeing the Body" by Rachel Eliza Griffiths Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038