in community those who do not
the man i was drawing and dreaming was six foot three two hundred twenty pounds
six foot two one hundred eighty-five pounds
six foot three one hundred forty-five pound
six foot five two hundred ten pounds
a little sketch of his white woman
i didn’t know where to put myself
I am nobody’s woman I belong to myself because I am unable to forgive
but what is because
I am I said unable to forgive
they say I am his other woman
but I don’t belong to anybody nor the streets I don’t know any other way
to love
unable and because
I know him and he knows me
when he says
come here girl!
that is what i do
not anybody but the one who is the very one who is the one who
can know I do not forgive the ones who have the same quality for warring
they love the soldier I was raised to be the war in me
like I love him I do not forgive I do not give anybody my money
the struggle is over
hustle
i think i hold freedom inside me which is probably why i dream about
who i want inside me who among my sweet friends
all of whom treat me like the
bitch
they believe me to be
in their hearts
i’m not embarrassed to say i am the other woman
it’s an open secret it’s a
metaphor
on the street with a man i want very badly
i know i am eclipsed by his actual glamor
and fearlessness
a wake anybody conscious could move into
when i say “a man i want” he’s black because
because because because because
the quest reveals
love to be what i have to offer and what i have for
my familiar
he is a criminal he is a liar he is high as a motherfucker
on his way over here right now
soon i’ll need a new pair of spectacles
i need
somebody to pick up the tab for afterschool
to pay off my loans
i’m broke
this is something we can negotiate
the toll
to be claimed
belonging to him as the root business
between us
our instructive adhesion
taking place within unwillingness to forgive surrounding terrors
blocked in terms of sociogeny
i think about having a secretary
i wish for a girl
to shield me from incoming emails
and misogynist blows
simone is in a meeting she cannot come to the phone right now (POW) she sleeps naked
(GBOSA) her skin is very delicate though papery to her own touch she will
accept flowers yes ranunculus and dahlia (SMACK) she is saying hold on
Copyright © 2022 by Simone White. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 28, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.