Chasing Utopia by Nikki Giovanni

Author:Nikki Giovanni
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-03-11T04:00:00+00:00

THESE WOMEN

I have known these women

Have loved and admired them

Have been afraid of and for them

I have slept on lumpy double beds

That were covered with quilts

Made by these women and their friends

Washed in a communal tub

And dried with kisses from the Tennessee breeze

The dreams I have dreamed under those quilts

Took me on this journey not yet completed

I have sat with these women

On back porch steps

Gutting Catfish or Whiting

My knife flying up and down

Split exactly to the center the better to lay flat

In the hot grease of the skillet

My hair covered in fish scales

My hands covered with blood

My lips smiling as I have been welcomed

Into the company of women

My grandmother would let me

Break the green beans

Pop pop pull the string though

When guests were expected she

Would “French” them

That was a kitchen job

Saturday was a cleaning day

I have bent to my knees to scrub

The wooden pantry floor

And climbed on shaky chairs

To Pledge the cabinets in which are kept the good dishes

Sundays were Sunday School and Church

Our Sunday best clothes

Our deliverance from and to

Sunday was the answer

I did not know then

The question

I have heard these women

When they thought I was asleep

Crying for their sons

In jail

Or their daughters

Being beaten

I have seen the bruises of the daughters

And I have seen the grandmothers

Not looking

I have heard their prayers when they didn’t know

What to pray for

Looking for understanding and relief

Praying for their granddaughters to not

Make the same mistakes

Had there been magic

I would have lifted these women

All of them

Into a red cape

And sprinted them away to a happy land

But they are grounded

In their God and their families

They are grounded in their hearts and minds

They majestically knew

They are grounded in me

And here I stand

With arms wide open

A song fleeing

from my breasts

from the goodness

Of our grandmothers

And I must sing

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