From: Oceanrain's Homepage:
Poem to a Beautiful Forgotten Black Woman
She is dark like the ebony woods,
dark like my desires, and my thoughts,
a mystery, a secret untold.
If I dare to ask about her story,
no one would say a word.
The world pretends she doesn’t exist,
their eyes are blind,
she walks slowly,
whispering words,
carrying her past, memories lost,
inside a bag
where she keeps her mind,
and her loneliness,
the only belongings
that she possesses.
Long black legs
covered with dust,
the print of time tightening her skin,
the smell of graves, following her shadowed shape.
Her body wrapped
in faded dress,
her head hidden behind a veil.
-Oh…but let me look at you,
and daydream your past,
make your present an open letter,
your skin all mine…
Taking you away from
the black widow’s image,
away from the dull road,
I bathe your skin in a pond
made of rain waters,
and perfume your lips with dear love.
Her features, lightened with my sunrays,
make her look like a goddess beauty,
her curls smell of rosemary,
her lips taste like fresh-cut berries.
I cover her breasts
with purple, red, and blue silks,
her legs I oil
with lavender, and mystic spices.
-Guide me to the valley,
the secret valley of my dream lovers,
where buttercups blossom,
and lilies fill the wind with the sweet scent of timeless
tenderness.
-I’ll make you rest under the crib of its waterfalls,
I’ll make your breasts shine under the touch
of every drop of mist.
I’ll kiss your lips,
and erase your hurts,
the pain of the lonely years,
and then,
I’ll raise you to the sun
as an offering of love…
She in return covers my lips
with her fingertips,
looking at my eyes
breaking the chains inside her heart.
As I look at her,
She’s no longer mine,
She has been transformed
Into a delicate,
unique,
black rose.
Copyright@oo
Roxana Reyes Santos
Poem and Painting edited by: R. Patrick Davis
April 13, 2000