Black Matters
Black Matters
after D.H. Lawrence
shall i tell you, then, that we exist?
there came a light, blue and white careening.
the police like wailing angels
to bitter me.
and so this:
dark matter is hypothetical. know
that it cannot be seen
in the gunpowder of a flower,
in a worm that raisins on the concrete,
in a man that wills himself not to speak.
gags, oh gags.
for a shadow cannot breathe.
it deprives them of nothing. pride
is born in the black and then dies in it.
i hear our shadow, low treble
of the clasping of our hands.
dark matter is invisible.
we infer it: how light bends around a black body,
and still you do not see black halos, even here,
my having told you plainly where they are.
Comments
A poet is a poet is a poet.
In this day and age, I shouldn't be talking about the Black poet. I shouldn't be making a point of differentiating between poets by the very colour of their skin, but, sadly, racism still speaks to us today. The language of racism exists so we must continue our struggle to full and absolution liberation and the emancipation of the mind.