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Rope against dark trees

Letter to America by Jarrett Ziemer

One Poem

lips to feet

they started with the lips    no    the teeth     the two
the gap     dug bone finger between    the lips    pried
as Alabama daylight     no    wait—

do not forget with these words     you have breath
does it snap     do you struggle     now for breath
and then     there is the neck
am I a house    a field    or a water     nigger
they tell me we are all something
are you a house     or a field nigger
you are all something
you will be     a great debater     you will be a grave digger
testing flex you will be     a footballer
like hands     cupping     a brown boys breast
and can we not be taught     to move     beyond
they are the same man
the I am sorry for that man     and     I am angry for this one
to live in two places at once
and haven’t we been taught
as to have become unpublishable
that word that has become so simple
only like freedom
longing for nectar that tastes
to belly swollen from hunger
beyond     castrated with distinct care    testicles
that would soon move
hanging as Christ on cross     above hands
the charred body     of a negro
a plane old white man cloaked
mine is a man outside             my window
outside their window
my ancestor    was a white man     nearly half of me
aren’t we taught to be scared of monsters
by delicate sewing hand
sheered     from parchment
shrivel as fuzz from paper to be plucked
fingers around thighs
meeting monsters breath
blacker than the air at night to a child after
and didn’t each hair on the body then
its breaking point
paper stretched beneath water to its pulp
bark     as paper     as brown     thin
dry and cracking     as paper after
squeezed     tightly     to skin so
tight     tight to thin     stretching thighs
up leg     they     gripped     dry appendages
fingers between ash toes     rubbing
they scrubbed soot toes     jammed
the worn shoes                the stinkin socks    no inch   was safe
they started     with the feet     removed

 

 

 

Jarrett ZiemerJarrett Ziemer holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Western Colorado University. His poem “A Fish-Tenkara” was awarded an honorable mention in Deep Wild Journal’s 2023 graduate student writing contest, and his poem “A Bed as a Nest” was awarded an honorable mention in Dreamers’s 2023 Dreamers Writing Contest. Jarrett received an International Merit Award in the Atlanta Review 2023 International Poetry Competition, was the featured poet at the 33rd annual Headwaters Conference, and is a 2024 Jack Straw Fellow. You can find Jarrett’s work on his website (jarrettgziemer.com) as well as in About Place Journal, Belmont Story Review, Creative Nonfiction, and other publications.

Header photo by Farid Ayvazov, courtesy Shutterstock.