fairytale is from my forthcoming poetry collection Gil Scott Heron is On Parole and can be listened to here.
the teacher reads snow white
in our fairytale
my daughter will scar herself
with household bleach tonight
crying mirror on the wall
erase this face as black as night
the beast is the head of the militia
beauty wz an african child
he had her circumcised at five
& she wept in their honeymoon bed
i /don’t want to kiss a frog prince
or hope i turn to swan
wanna be like goldilocks
& help myself
don’t tell me that it’s wrong
call it colonisation
& the bears i shoot
aren’t civilised anyway
i’ll grab the biggest porridge bowl & fire
once upon a time
in a fairytale
a goose that layed a golden egg
wz called a pregnant slave
the kings horses &
the kings men /sold children
down the mississip—away
no matter how hard mama cried
no handsome prince or pumpkin coach came
i put the brothers in the grimm
in the grade three reading room
i / cut my little library card in two
& said / thankyou miss librarian
but black kids don’t do
hans christian anderson
we are the hunted wolves
cowered down in grandma’s room
hiding from white hoods
that stain red while riding
through the wood / black life
is not a children’s book
disney says / every little girl
would like to be either sleeping
beauty or cinderella / well
i missed the tribal ball
slept for five hundred years
& woke to find my prince
had been lynched / rap
was king / & the continent
was dying
i am the match girl left
out in the cold / if i don’t
burn this fiction down / it’s
not for want of trying
because these tales
come for our young / like
rumpelstiltzkin
till they believe they can
spin straw / into record deals
slay a dragon
& claim the kingdom
hands up / who volunteers
to teach my child
that happily ever after / may
not include the servants
in the kitchen
spoken word 'bourne
this is phenomenal work. rhymically, emotionally, incredibly mature.
ReplyDeleteThis made me think of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. Amazing, Maxine.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, I like this one!
ReplyDeleteWoh. The imagery and history slaps me back to my childhood filled with these misleading fairy tales. I love and understand every single sentiment in this. Wonderful, evocative lyricism.
ReplyDeleteJason: Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSimonne: Morrison? I blush!
Kate: You're right, I don't believe a word of it. From your previous disapprovals you, like and political poem just don't gel. Convince me. Why is this different from any of the others you haven't liked?
Fly Girl: Thanks for visiting. I'm both sad and glad that you can identify with this...mostly sad.
As I read this powerful poem I was wishing inside me I could see you deliver each stanza. I am used to this type of poetry. For four and a half years I conducted a session here in my neck of the woods in London where poets, story-tellers and performers in general were invited to come and contribute to the night. I got a lot of poets with a similar rapid-fire, quick-thinking and witty poetry as yours. It was a pleasure to read you even if the content, alas, is ever so sad and true. And by the way, Gil is one of my heroes. I just can't stop listening to 'Brother'.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
It's good to show cancerous growths in society, show and tell, but others look away from the impossibility of still holding these maligned thoughts they thought they buried safely. One seed of disrespect is one seed too many...what to do but cry out loud to be heard...one at the time! Heavy load to carry to be the screamer...You're impressive Maxine
ReplyDeleteWhoohoo! We got audio. I know this poem is very serious but WE GOT AUDIO OF YOU! ooooh yeah.
ReplyDeleteA Cuban In London: Thanks for visiting here. I'd love to have been at one of those readings - or all of them! And yeah, as you'd imagine, Gil is one of my bad black superheroes too!
ReplyDeleteLorraine: 'One seed of disrespect is one seed too many' Hear, hear!
Cat: Yeah, I know, And I know I keep promising things about this blog and audio...I just haven't had the chance to sort it all out so I thought I'd send you over there. Glad you liked it.
This poem reminds me of that one where you looked at the politics of Shakespeare. There's this feeling that just because they've been around for generations that these fairy-tales are nice and cuddly, but if you look at the kind of shit the world is in, then you know it's crucial that we begin re-examining our early mythology for the ways in which it perpetuates different kinds of civil distortion. What I've just said might sound fairly analytical and dry - this poem is anything but that. Intensity and immediacy are by now hallmarks of your poetry Maxine, but I love that there's so much else to chew on as well.
ReplyDeleteI feel you here in my room just reasoning to me, rhytmically. Of course, sistren, your word play is tight and so profound, I got dancehall excited with your lyrical flow. Especially when your symbolic imagery re-paints the fairy tale scenery. Is Like...Yuh hear dat? she know it, too. I Identify so much with your political poetry, but that is the Walter Rodney in me. Dancehall adrenelin, Sistren, ah tellin you. That white hood...riding through the wood...WOW!!!
ReplyDelete