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Ready for Harvest (in memory of Henrietta Lacks)

This is not about you.

This is not about

the transmutation

of your jail celled mind

wrapped in self-help

and cellophane.

 

This is not about

your new found

discovery

discovering me

and my afflictions

according to the

white man’s diction

a dictation

of my past

extracted

and examined

under the microscopic

power of time.

 

This is not about

your self-defined

enlightenment

when you made

a deal to unearth

the truth of HeLa

coated in dust

covered particles

of HeLa

on your nightstand

and I laid

in a grave

unmarked.

 

This is not about

my big lips

and thick hips

under ***** covers

running a sweat

fever on my thighs

shaking feet in stirrups

and the pain was rich

after a tight pinch

and I didn’t know

what part of me

had been snipped

to grow cold

and never die.

 

No, this is not about you.

 

This is about me.

A historic legacy

left to thrive across the time

less chains of nucleic

tidal waves

Covalent bonds

could never rival

the strides of this soul

miles beyond

the distant

COLORED ENTRANCE

something brewing

inside dividing

inexplicable replication,

readying for harvest

behind a dried tobacco field

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Written by
shonna
Published
Jan 3, 2012
Lines·Words
63·194
Permission

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