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

Callaloo 23.4 (2000) 1376



[Access article in PDF]

Talisman

Shara McCallum


You leave the house in its stillness
thinking it is near dawn.
The long walk through the dark
you try to recite prayers
but forget the words, remember
only the kneeling,
the feeling of your knees growing numb.
Silver branches of trees
stir the wind, the moon
with her sallow face looks on.
If you had grown up
to become another young girl,
you are sure duppy
would not have found a way in.
In another place
you would have known
the magic phrase,
before going to bed
would have scattered rice
onto the tile floor, watching
the iridescent husk spill
from your hands.



Shara Mccallum teaches at the University of Memphis and is the author of The Water Between Us, winner of the 1998 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. Born in Jamaica, she has won the Academy of American Poets Prize, and her widely published and anthologized poetry has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes.

...

pdf

Share