Risk, Courage, and Women: Contemporary Voices in Prose and Poetry

dancing in the dark

306 dancing in the dark Demetrice Anntía Worley At an English conference presentation, 77 people and I breathe molecules from Julius Caesar’s last dying breath. This is the only connection between us. I am in a herringbone tweed suit. Gray and black crosshatch pattern confines my hips, chest, back. Hair twisted, tight coil, no loose ends escaping. Small pearl earrings, one in each ear, match the thin strand around my neck. I present papers in white academia. I match their foreign movements. My jerky fox trot is invisible to them. They see a waltz of standard diction. “She speaks so well for a black woman.” One or two others like me, dancing to a rhythm, they can’t hear, smile, nod, exchange partners. I return home, shed herringbone layer, run hands over warm caramel skin, crossing borders 307 wide hips, small breasts, ashy knees. Put my hair in thick braids. Muddy Waters on the box. Soul slow dances back into my body. Reprinted from Spirit and Fame: An Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry (Syracuse University Press, 1997). ...