Here in this here place — A Poem for Toni Morrison

After Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Christina Sharpe, Andros Zins-Browne, and Rowdy SS

Here, in this here place
Here in this fear place
Here in this here place
Here in this
Here in this here place
Here in this fear place
Here in this here place
Here in this

Here in this here place, they do not love your hands
Here in this fear place, we sneak whispers in bathrooms like cheat day candy
Cry into tissues balled like fists
Reach for each other with across the room eyes
Afraid to be seen fraternizing with the skinfolk
Mistaken for family, though nepotism is unavailable

9 to 5, they use your hands
5 to 9, you gotta love them
9 to 5, they use your hands
5 to 9, rub Vaseline in the wound
9 to 5, they use your hands
5 to 9, cook parsnips, fry plantain
9 to 5, they use your hands
5 to 9, write one true note

9 to 5
Carpal tunnel
Copyright
Curate
Contract

Lunch break
Petit marronage

5 to 9
Massage
Masturbate
Meet
Milly rock
Marijuana

This stanza not spoken:
Place right palm at base of spine, raise to middle of back and suck in air while straightening
Milly rock 1x
Repeat these gestures 3x
Massage neck while expressing pleasure

Here in this fear place, they would put your insides through a shredder
Here in this fear place, they would sell your gender on the auction block

Here, when thrown against gallery walls
Here, on the master’s clock
Are names that need to be savored in the mouth
Thoughts that need to stretch their legs
Breaths caught in brambles
Sighs and laughs that need to bubble up and break the surface
Here in this here place
Sometimes
A sister comes along and makes you feel alive again
Then here is a human being

Repeat unspoken stanza:
Place right palm at base of spine, raise to middle of back and suck in air while straightening
Milly rock 1x
Repeat these gestures 3x
Massage neck while expressing pleasure

This stanza spoken with movement:
Backs that need support
Feet that need to dance
Backs that need support
Feet that need to dance
Backs that need support
Feet that need to dance
An unnoosed neck