Exit Wound
by Leila Jackson
1936–Jesse Owens (nicknamed “The Buckeye Bullet”) won four track and field gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Berlin in the span of 45 minutes. In America, he returned to poverty and struggled to find work, at one point racing against horses for money.
We know what we saw, we know the numbers, the millions white stars over shoulders, the truce of God, we know the day overstuffed like a ripe melon, the metal teeth, the lungs legs sun soil, we know hands, or no hands, or a spitting in the eye, or the blood that stays in the hand, or the bird that stays in the bush, we know the body, the sweat, the invincible, except four fingers to the forehead, except sympathetic to, except another sea, we know except, we know except except accept, we know of course that the Bullet can beat a horse, the Bullet is in a league of his own, the Bullet has a carotid artery that flickers like a snake on the white line, the Bullet sings when fired from the starting gun, sings on its way to the back, sings to empty stands, whistles in the parting wind like a wrung-out flag, how the people change shape in the mouth.