in memory of George Floyd – for Darnella Frazier – May 25, 2020, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
The knee stays on the neck. Look. Those of us sitting stand.
Those of us standing squeeze our elbows. And God said, Let
us make man in our image, after our likeness. Who’s this us,
this our? Tiresias in the shape of a seventeen-year-old girl has
a camera with a phone in it. She can’t press record at first.
Look. Looks small. Far away. A vulture, for example, can look
like an eagle if you’re in the wrong spot. There. She presses
record. The knee stays on the neck and over every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth. Too much light. The lens
makes the world wavy & heavy. Get in closer. If the lens stays
clear, there’s no breath. The knee stays on the neck.
Sometimes it’s better not to know names. We think it’s wrong
to look, too. Not to, too. Then the black called jet & the pitch
called dark. So God created man in his own image. Those of
us sitting stand. Who’s this us? Those of us standing claw our
elbows. Those of us standing sit, too, because in the image of
God created he him; male and female created he them.
Sometimes it’s better not to give names a sound. Does anyone
know how Adam wrapped up The Naming? What do we call
this? Look. Some of us talk without thought: “Nothing’s
happening” & “Why isn’t anybody doing anything” & “That’s
his knee on his neck” & “What did he do”. Far away in the
middle of our eye. Where? Port Comfort? Minneapolis.
Lorraine Motel? Minneapolis. 2332 Margaret Walker
Alexander Drive? Get in closer. Minneapolis. The Tallahatchie
River? Minneapolis. Tragically ancestral, that America, we say.
Rolling, rolling, rolling. Oh you, there you go again, America,
we say. Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and
subdue it. Justice, like Tiresias, is a mist. Also, a girl holding a
camera with a phone in it. Sometimes it’s better to give names
a song instead. Did Adam ever learn to sing, plea out in tones
of brittle copper what it’s like not to be God? Tear apart the
tenderest parts until they harden & sharpen into a wail of
indigo? Maybe God’s loneliness is absolute. Maybe He talks to
Himself in the shape of us: … every living thing that moveth
upon the earth. Here. Look. See? Too much light in the wrong
places. The black called jet & the dark called pitch. Tragically
ancestral, that America. What the mirror witnesses when no
one’s home anymore … . And God saw every thing that he
had made, and, behold, it was … . Look. The knee stays on
the neck.
*26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.