Racism in France 2

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not something to KILL her" — the barb, if any, their eyes admitted, could be coming up, taking aim — "but something to contaminate her tongue, so that, forever, the taste of home-things would sicken her, make her remember you despised her without cause, planned her destruction." "But that's unnatural; that couldn't happen"; and TV sounds (their glances sideways said) agreed, slowed down my arrow in its flight. The targets held themselves upright, protectable, until I said "It happened to me." They leaned forward as if blown by wind. "You don't mean that your PARENTS...?" They bent beneath the load imagined till I halfway restored them, saying "No, I don't mean that, not them." My silence filled their eyes with speculation, their humanness so right, so naively wrong it could not penetrate the darkness meant, could only glow at it, like a butterfly luminescent in fragile balance, stiffening. "The ones who did it" — my definition did not grow toward them — "mean less than Jacqueline, than what you make of her"; they seemed to want to swim the lake or sound around her, a rescue team. "That is, imagine her abroad still in search of love, or less, meal by meal escaping you — a homeless foreigner, shedding native smells of scorn and carcass-notions, her tablemates now shining, palms-up." Small gestures wiped their honest hands, patrolled the merchandise they wore, discreetly. "Imagine her brought home by the stench returning perhaps perfumed in a friendly question, contd

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Poem written by Emanuel, told through a conversation concerning racism in France. (Page 1)

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  • type
    Image
  • created on
  • file format
    jpg
  • file size
    681 kB
  • container title
    James A. Emanuel Papers
  • creator
    James A. Emanuel
  • issue
    BOX 4 FOLDER 27, "The Chopping Block (Selected Poems), draft, 1988 (2 of 2)
  • rights
    James A. Emanuel Estate
  • rights holder
    James A. Emanuel Estate
  • version
    1982/1983