EVA YAA ASANTEWAA

WAR VIGIL

the president of the united states of america dreams he's falling
down damp green passageways green ooze seeping into his cells
which swell peel away run and spin on millions of cilia

from my window i watch a Hygrade Milk truck
decorated with american flags
lashed to its bumper is a fat stuffed bear a child's toy
exposed dirtier than day-old manhattan snow
yellow ribbon spilling from its paw
milk delivered for america's children

flags rise erect from the flanks of milk trucks
will melt over coffins
will form fat triangles to fill
the unbearably empty arms of widows

flags wink at us from mannequins in store windows
fuse with the hard straight badges
of cops who watch us
flags divide us and block the sky

do you sit on the right hand of god?
pass under old glory for luck
america did not die in vietnam
wear a flag for safety
in a subway car one man was jumped by another
for speaking truth

it's 11a.m.
do you know where your nation is?
the world watches the shielding minutes drop away
i study the circulatory system of mercenaria mercenaria
in a few days i will cut its muscles and split it open and take its secrets
i uncap a bottle of dark amber ink
which straightaway gushes all over my hands
calmly i mop it up

the president of the united states of america wakes
from his dream thinking "i have forged my world
the hour has come"
 

Eva Yaa Asantewaa's poetry appears in several anthologies, including The Zenith of Desire: Contemporary Lesbian Poems about Sex; Does Your Mama Know? An Anthology of Black Lesbian Coming Out Stories and Queer Dog: Homo Pup Poetry, as well as in Brooklyn Review, Kuumba, Starfish, WV, Tempus, The Isis Papers, and the Pegasus Dreaming, Star Leaper, and Pedestal Magazine Web sites. Her writing will appear in An Eye for An Eye Makes the Whole World Blind: Poets on 9/11 (Regent Press) and Spirited: Affirming the Soul and Black Gay/Lesbian Identity (Redbone Press). She is the Dance Editor of the new theater/performing arts magazine, On & Off. Since 1976, she has covered dance for print and online publications including Dance Magazine, Soho News, and The Village Voice. As a WBAI radio broadcaster (1987-89), Eva worked with the Women's Radio Collective and the Gay and Lesbian Independent Broadcasters Collective (OUTLOOKS), and co-hosted the Tuesday Afternoon Arts Magazine and produced her own specials. See DancingWorld, Eva's monthly eNewsletter at www.yahoogroups.com/group/DancingWorld

You can also find more of Eva's work at Poetz 2002.