Unshuttered ["8. cane, cravats, and corsets tell..."]

cane, cravats, and corsets tell   and retell  the body’s story  the shell  we

shroud in  guile, romance, and thread  i was a doll  i was a sleek fool  i

was publicly foppish  loud as a lit lamp  but  my shoes, their upturned toes

dust and scuff  a negro’s always got nigger somewhere on ’ im all  you gots to

do is

Look

They couldn’t let me occur    not like  this  not

this me  not my Sunday self  not  not  like upright  not like stroll  like

matchstick  Like la-di-fuckin’-da  boy  gotta find a crime  for you

their rhythm partial to the red air  down around my knees

she/point//shriek//point//shriek/she/ the point is  i was where i was  when i

   was there

it’s true my eyes  may have swept  a woman  an hour  idea  or  a

future

        i didn’t own  she/point/she  who knew  that

 there that boy is that the boy yessir that the boy  could be a whole  trial

sometimes even christians  get necks wrong  i was not that boy

i  used to twirl a  walking stick  and dip  my crown toward a sun  that

relished

my body

but

when we forget     that fancy only rolls

    one way

   some    body

         reminds

              us