The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 7/8/08 (warning: very graphic language)

[BlueIris]

"November, 1941"

I didn't believe my friend
when he told me
		                        She's a nigger
with her skin
creamy as the inside of a conch
and every bit as touchable.
		                         What would it be like
		                         to fuck a woman I was taught to hate?
I took her
to eat fresh crabs near the boardwalk,
and when she laughed
her shoulders shook, freely.
As we rode past a grove of trees I asked,
		                         You're a negro, right?
She said, Of course I am, laughed a little,
looked at me as if she wanted to believe
I was joking.  When I turned on a slim path
into the trees she said, This isn't the way to my house.
I felt her squirm in the seat,
the air between us 
thickening.  I stopped
the car under a dark canopy, told her
		                          Do what I want, or I’ll leave you.
		                          Hear?

I finished, and drove her back
to her father's house.  Watched her
button her blouse, pull her bunched skirt
over reddened knees.  Watched
her fingers, wrists, those pale hands
white-knuckled, trembling.

—Khadijah Queen

[Chan790]

1. ...

I don't know what to say...I don't like the poem, persay...but I've never thought you're supposed to "like" this poem. It registers on a deep level because of its' content. It's a gut-punch. A brave choice.

edit: I just noticed the date on the poem...it makes the comparison I removed before posting more apt: "...of its' content, much like reading Mein Kampf in college for my course on Nazism did a week after touring the Holocaust Museum."

Anybody else catch the multiple levels of significance there? We're engaged in a war driven by hatred (rightfully against the Nazis then, questionably against ??? today) against an enemy driven by hatred while casting a blind eye to the persistent hate-mongering in our own country. Then and now.

[BlueIris]

2. Woah. I actually *didn't* catch the significance of the title.

I read it strictly as a period piece about racism/misogyny.

People sometimes forget that World Wars I and II, which exposed African-American service men to a culturally diverse Europe, did a lot to help along the Civil Rights movement in the United States. In many ways, WWI was an important part of what sparked the Harlem Renaissance. WWII ushered in even more social progress here.

Nice insight (especially because I didn't expect to get any comments on this one).

[RetroLounge]

3. Damn.

wow...

Intense.

RL

[BlueIris]

5. Wow, a drive-by from Retro.

Thanks, man. We couldn't get along without you.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. My dear BlueIris...

Whew...

This is powerful, not only for what it says, but also for what it leaves out...

That boy is not a nice person...

I feel for her, so much...

What a rotten thing to do to a lovely woman...

Very evocative!

Thank you!

:hi:

[ThomCat]

6. This poem is all the more powerful

for showing how easily people can decide to hate and hurt someone else. :(

Racism, betrayal of friendship, and rape... and it can be that sudden.
x(

This poem is disturbing, but it's a damned good poem.

[BlueIris]

7. That's what I thought when I found it: "Disturbing, but damn good."

I'm shocked that it has received so many thoughtful comments; thanks, Loungers.