a woman sits in an attic for seven years
she is not rapunzel
perfect
in the heart of a galaxy
130 million light-years away
there's a hole as big
as the orbit of mars
a hundred million suns
have fallen
into it
nothing escapes
it's perfectly black
as the poet's night
falling gently
as steal away
the last note and after
on the general's tongue
as even a man
darkens newspaper margins
completing a letter in a birmingham jail
perfect
the dancer's
god-driven legs
her gran jetés
revelation
they bent time
collisions of stars
each spiral
its own orbit
at the galactic core
of the matter
perfect
hambone hambone
where you been
round the world and
back
as a woman sits in an attic
so
a man sits in a hole
strung with ten thousand lights
he thinks his story through
*first published in Cave Canem Retreat Anthology VII, 2002/2003 ISBN 0970977026
Hermine Pinson has published three poetry collections: Ashe (Wings Press), Mama Yetta and Other Poems (Wings Press), and Dolores is Blue/Dolorez is Blues (Sheep Meadow Press). She also released a cd, Changing the Changes in Poetry & Song, in special collaboration with Yusef Komunyakaa and Estella Conwill Majozo (2005). Her poetry, fiction, and critical essays have appeared in anthologies and journals such as Callaloo, Verse, Cave Canem Poetry Anthology, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South,African American Review, Common Bonds: Stories by and About Modern Texas Women, Eyeball, Konch, Melus, Paintbrush Forum for European Contributions in African American Studies, and will soon appear in Richmond Noir. As associate professor of English, she teaches creative writing and African American literature at the College of William and Mary. Purchase her books here and here, and her collaborative cd here.
