Say It, Say It Any Way You Can
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Say It, Say It Any Way You Can*
He hit her in the back of the head. Truth—finds its own coarse measureNot long out of diapers I wore purple hot pants danced a funky chicken There was the boogaloo and my aunt's wig that went over her hair I knew men even then I had uncles And a father
We jumped high in the living room our lives a quick-stepWhen I held her in my arms did I do any good? She was hip too cool a Saturday night cigarette a bone-handled pistol in the panty drawer Say it louder—
I was proud I held my head high with my Sally-legged aunt,I kicked my heels and my uncle laughed He had a Western nameThis was Texas a man's world but women raised these men out of cotton
out of dust Bred longhorns and bullshit She could shoot but she didn't She said Sing it baby Please, plea—I got down on my kneesand cradled her son's head in my small arms Out of memorythe thread of truth a red daisy chain blood running down a back
He hit her again I was wearing my purple hot pants ones that matched hers or I was in my pajamas holding my cousin's head in my armscovering his eyes his mouth with my flat chest my fingers in his hair
hair red as his mother's Coarse As in unrefined She wore a wig that fell off her headHe screamed "Fat bitch" She cried "Don't go" and let her pony-legs goto sticks thin as a bluebonnet stem Texas flower weed [End Page 596]
When I held her in my arms it did no good When my mother held her in her arms she did not come backI said "Don't go" She said I'm black—I sang Say it loudHe said "Black bitch" It was a boogaloo it had been danced before
My uncle laughed his laugh It fell like a wig to the floor He threw back his head conked slick as a razor bladeI'm saying it
the way truth comes out when it's been held too longto your chest in a boy's cries a boy who will growinto his father's shoes Dance of generationsCotton-eyed marshalls Green-eyed brown men
She said "You can't trust men like that" Turned me aroundsaid "Do your dance girl sing that song" She could shoot but didn'tSomeone else did I'm saying
in a bar years and miles up the road he felllike a wig hitting the floor Juke joint Gin-stompJames Brown always spinning He was big stuffin a slim suit Cool as Saturday night he fell hair flawlessly coiled. [End Page 597]
Vievee Francis, a native of Texas who recently received the MFA from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), is author of Blue-Tail Fly (Wayne State University Press, 2006), her first collection of poems, which won the 2009 Rona Jaffe Award. Her poems have also appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Margie, Detroit's Metro Times, and Callaloo. Some of her work has been selected for the prestigious Best American Poetry 2010. She was the 2009–2010 Poet-in-Residence for the Alice Lloyd Scholars Program at the University of Michigan. She lives in Detroit, Michigan.
Footnotes
* "Say It, Say It Any Way You Can" first appeared in Rattle 31 (2009) and again at: <http://rattle.com/blog/2009/12/say-it-say-it-anyway-you-can-by-vievee-francis/>. Reprinted with permission from Rattle.
