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  • The Ballad of Anita Hill
  • Evie Shockley (bio)

Cave Canem: A Special Section

I.

Beside a graveled path, stately trees      sweep back into a sudden arc: sun cuts the bristly green rug. Joggers wheeze      to a walk, watch the quiet field become

a trembling of squirrels and small      birds. Cobwebs, dusty with dew, cloud the shrubs: spiders enthrall,      simply by spinning out silken sinews

fraught deep within them. Bereft of fear,      you were bright when you took center stage: not dancing, perhaps, but clear:      prickly with bloodless truths. Winter

fell, heavy and wet, quite out of season,      innocent. As if snow needs a reason.

II.

Sit up straight. Smile. Don’t smile. Wear      that nice suit, you know, the blue one with the knee-length hem. Say a prayer:      just a quick, silent “Thy will be done.”

Bring your family (nuclear only). Make      sure they dress middle-class and hug you affectionately. Be strong, or fake      it, but in a womanly way. Don’t be smug

or shy or prudish or loose, when testifying      that he said “pussy” or “penis” on the job: push the words out, as if they were defying      gravity, then let them fly. Weep. Don’t sob. [End Page 1003]

Exude celibacy—heterosexual style.      Sit up straight. Smile. Don’t smile.

III.

We crowned you for a day, a week, Miss Black      America: knew you as a round, brown face pegged in a sharp, square frame: condemned your lack      of style—those tailored suits could never grace

the breasts of chocolate milk, the fleshy hips      we knew you had, the way an evening gown would have: judged you on the size of your lips,      their color, whether they trembled, or turned down:

considered your talents—writing, teaching law—      yet ranked you highest for your undemonstrated but patent skill at giving head (we saw      through your disguise): and ultimately rated

you a queen-bitch-Jezebel-matriarch-whore,      destroyer of black manhood, and so much more.

Evie Shockley

Evie Shockley is a candidate for the PhD in English at Duke University. Her work has been published in African American Review, Black Arts Quarterly, Blue Mesa Review, and The North American Review.

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