I am a black woman

Mari Evans

I am a black woman

the music of my song

some sweet arpeggio of tears

is written in a minor key

and I

can be heard humming in the night

Can be heard

   humming

in the night

I saw my mate leap screaming to the sea

and I/with these hands/cupped the lifebreath

from my issue in the canebrake

I lost Nat’s swinging body in a rain of tears

and heard my son scream all the way from Anzio

for Peace he never knew... I

learned Da Nang and Pork Chop Hill

in anguish

Now my nostrils know the gas

and these trigger tire/d fingers

seek the softness in my warrior’s beard

I

am a black woman

tall as a cypress

strong

beyond all definition still

defying place

and time

and circumstance

   assailed

      impervious

         indestructible

Look

   on me and be

renewed

Fonte (primeira e última estrofe): Pereira, E. A., org. 2010. Um tigre na floresta de signos. BH, Maza Edições. Poema publicado em livro em 1970.