promise me

excerpts from Lorraine Hansberry’s “Les Blancs”

photograph by A.B. Godfreed

surmised was true
you have to run
décolletage
irretrievably and immutably doomed
a capitalist to the marrow
so mixed up
in your head
anything should happen

at the edge of a great forest
what use are flowers
herbs and berries
excellence and human relevance
her challenge to the status quo

do you know how to make
our demands
Les Blancs,
for both our sakes,
settlers have one season
to grant
its conception

mood of our people
to three centuries of rape
and self-acquittal
don’t do
fond of Africa
battle scarred or dirty
invariably herded
incidentals — gangrene, tumors, still born babies
they bore me