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  • Moundville
  • Janice Lowe (bio)

nobody leaves this heaven by the river willingly somebodies must’ve smelled gun across the river      black warrior

a forced retreat in all directions north to sky to cherokee south to seminole to mother earth no robust well-nourished people of projectile point jaws and poison strong features grows bored surviving

surely the mounds protect the prehistoric from Time’s gift shop motif archaeology is a bitch if you don’t have some yaupon holly some ilex vomitoria tea to swallow or throw in his nosy face the black drink purifies like fire lives you longer than cottonwoods     sycamores

is it you who eats the muscadine? wild alabama grapes whose leaves you hide in hide you from trinket festivals for school buses of pointing mean-no-harms

30 years cannot be average life span mississippi sungods need you longer than that rednecks require more than amused resistance from still-lifed weavers of reed just beyond mound c [End Page 524]

  i may find you in a bowl of arrowheads can that be you hoodooing the kitschy kits: dream catcher earrings dream catcher key chains delivering nightmares to roving wannabe     indians

Janice Lowe

Janice Lowe teaches creative writing workshops in libraries and schools throughout New York City. Her poems have appeared in In the Tradition: An Anthology of Young Black Writers and Callaloo, in which she has made her third appearance. She is not only a poet but also a playwright and a composer of music.

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