en-wish-en

wove-ing softly in close up underneath
the blued maternaled dripping
of your longed dark nippled breasts
*“-syl-la-bate’n-at-that-
-this-you-some-body-other-self-!” . . .
mumbling on through them soliloquies born
‘fore in ‘cross that passage on
and then on and on      and on and on
and now on through you

in naked scared    unguarded   moments
longing  for where you wandering
in brown trespassing eyes
with thick  laden hands
too fulled to behold . . .-ding
your long praying fingers en-palming
them done      forbidden things      there warming
in amen amen en-tangling

waiting there stirring in syrup brown sugar ways
who they aint never caint never turned cold
you holding on to there to you holding on
pretending in sometimes ‘hind Sapphire-ing wigs
in a dimming purpled dimmed en-swallowing
your dark plum lips impounding your bosom
in hushed protesting vows
on and on   O Lord   and on and on
in this      as you is been

*This is one way (especially among African American women)“that you are letting somebody (and the audience always in attendance) know that you are getting them “told-off absolutely” by accentuating each and every syllable of your diatribe (a performance involving a myriad of facial contortions, eye rollings, finger waving at “in your face proximity,”  and lips smacking).

Copyright © 2003 Asili Ya Nadhiri