By Samiya Bashir

 

Blackbody Radiation

 

isotropic catalyst

intake breath o

 

barometric interference

squall omen o

 

friction: still

sky winder o

 

hush: listen

rise awake o

 

open hands

brought soaking o

 

hold secure

brought wide-eyed o

 

set ablaze

brought kicking o

 

blow to cool

brought purpose o

 

flash: spin

raise fathoms o

 

remember: release

incantation o

 

remember: release

incantation o

 

remember: release

incantation o

 

 

 

 

On Main Street

………………………beetree lindens basswoods and

shingle oaks twinkle their compass of white

each branch a gaslight

………………………………an ice-tipped dowsing

rod bewitching its path to labyrinth

 

me back to its hazy evening scenes where

I trail my fingers slow along trunk after

sleeping trunk as

……………………..now up your body through

the knotted nest of your chest and

……………………………………….eyes closed

I breathe in the soldering melt of us.

 

Let’s rise and rock our tarantella straight

across the railroad tracks

………………………………throw our heads back

and steal each other into dawn

……………………………………..reveal

 

one another bit by torturous bit

emit this fit of heat before it burns.

___________________________________

Samiya Bashir is the author of Gospel, finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the 2009 Lambda Literary Award, and Where the Apple Falls, a Poetry Foundation bestseller and finalist for the 2005 Lambda Literary Award. Bashir is editor of Black Women’s Erotica 2 and co-editor, with Tony Medina and Quraysh Ali Lansana, of Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social & Political Black Literature & Art.

Bashir’s poetry, stories, articles and editorial work have been featured in numerous publications including, most recently and forthcoming, in POETRY, Poet Lore, Michigan Quarterly Review, Crab Orchard Review, Cura, The Rumpus, Hubbub, Callaloo, and Encyclopedia Vol. 2 F-K among others.

She is the recipient of two Hopwood Awards from the University of Michigan, as well as awards, grants, fellowships, and residencies from the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, where she was a recent NEA writer-in-residence, the University of California, where she served as Poet Laureate, the Astraea Foundation, the National Association of Pen Women, Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, Soul Mountain Writers Colony, The Austin Project, Alma de Mujer, the James Dick Foundation for the Performing Arts, and Cave Canem, among others. Her long poem, “Coronagraphy,” was nominated for a 2013 Pushcart Prize.

A long-time communications professional focused on editorial, arts, and social justice movement building, Bashir is a founding organizer of Fire & Ink, an advocacy organization and writer’s festival for LGBT writers of African descent and a recipient of the 2011 Aquarius Press Legacy Award, given annually in recognition of women writers of color who actively provide creative opportunities for other writers. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon, where she teaches creative writing at Reed College. http://samiyabashir.com/