Nicole Sealey's The Ferguson Report: An Erasure reviewed in The Guardian
American poet Nicole Sealey's The Ferguson Report: An Erasure reviewed in The Guardian, Mslexia, Poetry London & The High Window; a poem from her debut Ordinary Beasts...
I’ve been pregnant. I’ve had sex with a man
who’s had sex with men. I can’t sleep.
My mother has, my mother’s mother had,
asthma. My father had a stroke. My father’s
mother has high blood pressure.
Both grandfathers died from diabetes.
I drink. I don’t smoke. Xanax for flying.
Propranolol for anxiety. My eyes are bad.
I’m spooked by wind. Cousin Lilly died
from an aneurysm. Aunt Hilda, a heart attack.
Uncle Ken, wise as he was, was hit
by a car as if to disprove whatever theory
toward which I write. And, I understand,
the stars in the sky are already dead.
*
candelabra with heads
Had I not brought with me my mind
as it has been made, this thing,
this brood of mannequins, cocooned
and mounted on a wooden scaffold,
might be eight infants swaddled and sleeping.
Might be eight fleshy fingers on one hand.
Might be a family tree with eight pictured
frames. Such treaties occur in the brain.
Can you see them hanging? Their shadow
is a crowd stripping the tree of souvenirs.
Skin shrinks and splits. The bodies weep
fat the color of yolk. Can you smell them
burning? Their perfume climbing
as wisteria would a trellis.
as wisteria would a trellis.
burning? Their perfume climbing
fat the color of yolk. Can you smell them
Skin shrinks and splits. The bodies weep
is a crowd stripping the tree of souvenirs.
Can you see them hanging? Their shadow
frames. Such treaties occur in the brain.
Might be a family tree with eight pictured
Might be eight fleshy fingers on one hand.
might be eight infants swaddled and sleeping.
and mounted on a wooden scaffold,
this brood of mannequins, cocooned
as it has been made, this thing,
Had I not brought with me my mind
Who can see this and not see lynchings?
*
hysterical strength
When I hear news of a hitchhiker
struck by lightning yet living,
or a child lifting a two-ton sedan
to free his father pinned underneath,
or a camper fighting off a grizzly
with her bare hands until someone,
a hunter perhaps, can shoot it dead,
my thoughts turn to black people—
the hysterical strength we must
possess to survive our very existence,
which I fear many believe is, and
treat as, itself a freak occurrence.
*
even the gods
Even the gods misuse the unfolding blue. Even the gods misread the windflower’s nod toward sunlight as consent to consume. Still, you envy the horse that draws their chariot. Bone of their bone. The wilting mash of air alone keeps you from scaling Olympus with gifts of dead or dying things dangling from your mouth—your breath, like the sea, inching away. It is rumored gods grow where the blood of a hanged man drips. You insist on being this man. The gods abuse your grace. Still, you’d rather live among the clear, cloudless white, enjoying what is left of their ambrosia. Who should be happy this time? Who brings cake to whom? Pray the gods do not misquote your covetous pulse for chaos, the black from which they were conceived. Even the eyes of gods must adjust to light. Even gods have gods.
Contents List
13 medical history
14 a violence
15 candelabra with heads
17 hysterical strength
18 legendary
19 it’s not fitness, it’s a lifestyle
20 happy birthday to me
21 the first person who will live to be one hundred and fifty years old has already been born
22 in igboland
♦
25 legendary
26 heretofore unuttered
27 and
29 cento for the night i said, “i love you”
41 virginia is for lovers
43 clue
46 c ue
49 unfurnished
♦
53 imagine sisyphus happy
55 underperforming sonnet overperforming
56 legendary
57 an apology for trashing magazines in which you appear
59 Even the Gods
60 In Defense of “Candelabra with Heads”
61 instead of executions, think death erections
62 unframed
63 object permanence
