In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • Daybreak
  • Yusef Komunyakaa (bio)

Succubus crawls out of his bed. The infamous mask goes back into its rosewood box, & the lacquered lid with red roses snaps shut. The new skin of reason grows over doubt again. The chicken snake angles up from its hole, drawn to the same hint of sun that opens the rooster's beak. An oath bleeds through torn black silk. Someone unties a prisoner's blindfold, & somewhere a turtle's one eye blinks open. How can the moon still be in the sky? How does love live past this u-turn in a city's wild heart? Somewhere the lioness lifts her great paw, & the gazelle rises. Then, she bounds past the watering hole, into a yellowing ticket, a circle, into the interior of a man's dream. He can almost hear someone praying to get even with his own reflection. The alarm clock plays "Skylark," & the pain in the man's left side goes away.

Yusef Komunyakaa

Yusef Komunyakaa, the subject of this issue of Callaloo, teaches at Princeton University. His most recent book of poems is Taboo: The Wishbone Trilogy, Part I. The numerous prizes, awards and honors he has received for his poetry include a chancellorship with the American Academy of Poets, the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (Wesleyan University), the William Faulkner Prize (Universite Rennes, France), the Kingsley Tufts Award for Poetry, and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

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