2 March 2004 | Vol. 4, No. 1
Cyclops Mary Down the Avenue, A Monologue
(part II)
Yeah, I heard it.
Saw the whole thought form
from out the back of his head,
then take shape into one lust-musty sentence.
I saw
his sick-yellow eyes.
White spit beading at the corners of his mouth.
Yeah. I heard it.
One-eyed bitch, maybe.
But I also saw an African lady braiding hair
into eighteen neat rows. 6 sparrows.
A black girl riding
on the handlebars of a turquoise bicycle.
Lace undergarments hanging from a fire escape.
And the dull orange sphere of a basketball
shoved down, shoved down
by the palm of a 7-foot, tight dribbler.
Have you ever seen such jicama?
And the color of those black-red cherries!
It is summer, and the fruit-stands are more glorious
than the words of any uninventive man.
Stay seated, Mr. Old Man John.
Does it take two eyes to see you are
bent and sad as plywood left in rain,
and me, I am
a field, a field, a field?
About the author:
Aracelis Girmay is a writer of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Originally from California, she received her MFA from NYU. Girmay has worked as a writer-in-residence with the Community~Word Project and Teachers & Writers Collaborative, and is currently hard at work with the CARE project in her native Santa Ana. Among her most recent publications is the short story "girl medusa" (I Was There, anthology). She has been a featured poet at The Udi Adoni Project Room, the Bowery Poetry Club, Bar 13, Cornelia Street, and the New Jersey State Prison–Trenton, among others. A former Watson Fellow and a present Cave Canem Fellow, she loves her work as writer and educator—believes this work to be integral to social change. She also loves her loves—Yosef, Banna, and Ariana—who have taught her to move straight-backed in the world, with open eyes. She can be reached at aracelisgirmay@yahoo.com.
For further reading:
See the complete list of work by Aracelis Girmay at 42opus. Browse the contents of 42opus Vol. 4, No. 1, where "Cyclops Mary Down the Avenue, A Monologue" ran on March 2, 2004. List other work with these same labels: poetry.
