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Maroonage Tanka, and: Eulogy for Eli Whitney, and: Makeshift Gods
Chantal James (bio)
MAROONAGE TANKA
heroes ran to hillswe children of red clay chainsmoking thought revolt
to be aflame on mountains;maroonage in brooks' babble [End Page 120]
EULOGY FOR ELI WHITNEY
sing a humbled field of briarembrambled, embattered, in viewof crow & buzzard–so
high up, these birds of preyhear the song of the bolls.the plant aims to kill,
weaving white. killer of soiland dreams, with roots entrencheddagger-like.
o murderer! was your victimthe soil or the dream?we the needy await you. [End Page 121]
MAKESHIFT GODS
my mothers were plucked unwillingly as they bloomed, the even and the odd of youpressed by the weight of strangers—profit, these shadow-men made a god of you
as the flower seeks the sun's face i'm honed to your beam, i swear, across lightyearsyou let me suck puss from your wounds. it was nectar; i worshipped the god of you
when the sickness of the prophets is cruelest you cannot know your own wantingin its curse—its comfort unquestioning, a sure grip—it shows who is the god of you
we are seized. lifted. the damp hand clamps unformed cries; the rigid body yields.goliath who swallows my smaller form in his, my murderer—who is the god of you?
the old ones leave us, their gardens of mint uprooted, their basil plants dead of thirstnot even by dove do they send word on the fate of the soul of you, the god of you [End Page 122]
Chantal James
CHANTAL JAMES lives in Washington, D.C., and has been published across genres—as a poet, fiction writer, essayist, and book reviewer—in such venues as Catapult, Paste Magazine, Harvard's Transition Magazine, The Bitter Southerner, and more. Her honors include a Fulbright fellowship in creative writing to Morocco, a finalist position for the Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize from North Carolina Literary Review, and a fellowship to The Vermont Studio Center. Her debut novel, None but the Righteous (Counterpoint), was one of Kirkus' 10 most anticipated fiction books of the year and was nominated for the John Leonard Prize for Best First Book from the National Book Critics Circle.