LITMIR.BIZ

      This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

      5 4 3 2 1

      Cover illustrations: Woman: If I stand in my window, by upfromsumdirt. Swirled fabric pattern © Ka2shka | Dreamstime.com.

      FOR MISS LUCILLE

       Out in the open wisdom calls aloud,

       she raises her voice in the public square …

      PROVERBS 1:20

      CONTENTS

       fear

       Singing Counter 3

       Draft of an Ex-Colored Letter Sent Home from the Post-Race War Front 6

       I End the Winter 7

       Apologia for Something 8

       My Father as Walter Lee Younger 9

       Try to Hide 11

       beauty

       Mammy Know 15

       Portrait D’une Négresse 17

       Light 19

       blues

       Magdalene Brings 27

       Magdalene Begins to See Jesus 28

       What Jesus Said to Magdalene at Their Last Meal 29

       Magdalene’s Wait 31

       Magdalene on the Third Day 32

       hoodoo

       Memory of a Vision of Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans (1996) 35

       Memory of an Ancestral Vision (2006) 36

       Angry Black Woman in Root Worker Drag 37

       After, We’ll Read the Bible 39

       Job to His Daughter Jemima 40

       [Faith is a virgin wrist] 41

       [Today You spoke to me] 42

       [Before I came to You] 43

       [And how does God come] 44

       [There is only] 45

       [I recall four words] 46

       [There is some blessedness] 47

       wit

       The Glory Gets 51

       Female Surgery 52

       My 4:15pm Shrink’s Appointment on Thursday 54

       Memory of One Day in a Kitchen 56

       Birthright 58

       Patience 59

       If Free, Then 61

       Notes 65

       Gratitude 67

       Publication Acknowledgments and Credits 69