Poetry by Fatima Shakur

black bitch in museum

singing stones // the dusable

 

she is no girl      but
a mollusk of mud and manure
is her     //          rotted
gutted organ      retching
plump clumps of brine  clay
and        horsehair         //
fat nose             draped  in
skinned bough
and bitter          fermented tears   //
she is    no woman    but fat    mule  before
death is            her        //
birthing black
supple               bodies
of dung      filled daughters
destined           for        desecrated
tombstones   //       that sprout
stalks       of dust
gold                   and ginger.
she is no god    but
god is                  soaked in ginger beer
and         smothered liver   //
her closed smirk               isstuffedwithclumps
of mulehair                   mollusk meat
and slated memories of
crackwhips        and warm sewage
that melt                         like mush
in                          biglippedmoufs.
she is no girl         but
black bitch//      drenched in
brine    //ginger//       and dung
//is        us.

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