Hysterical Strength
When I hear news of a hitchhiker
struck by lightning yet living,
or a child lifting a two-ton sedan
to free his father pinned underneath,
or a camper fighting off a grizzly
with her bare hands until someone,
a hunter perhaps, can shoot it dead,
my thoughts turn to black people—
the hysterical strength we must
possess to survive our very existence,
which I fear many believe is, and
treat as, itself a freak occurrence.
Credit
Copyright © 2017 by Nicole Sealey. Originally published in Ordinary Beast (Ecco Press, 2017). Used with permission of the author.
Date Published
09/12/2017