Toomer

1962 –

(Jean Toomer)

I did not wish to “rise above”

or “move beyond” my race. I wished

to contemplate who I was beyond

my body, this container of flesh.

I made up a language in which to exist.

I wondered what God breathed into me.

I wondered who I was beyond

this complicated, milk-skinned, genital-ed body.

I exercised it, watched it change and grow.

I spun like a dervish to see what would happen. Oh,

to be a Negro is—is?—

to be a Negro, is. To be.