POETRY

Wounded: The Body Forgets Its Doors

By Leslie McIntosh     Auburn Witness Poetry Prize 2020 Honorable Mention
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                                                         Nowhere
                                                                is homeless
                                                                           like parties.
 
                                         Voices
                                                   escape,
                                         movements
                                   take shape
                                                  in windows,
                                        light spills out,
                                                   finds night-filled
                                                            eyes.
 
                                                   Outside, the final
                                         arrival—confused,
                                    yet invited,
                                                    observer.  
 
Suddenly interior,
an approachable
mess, forms
occupy                                                                                                 
the structure.
 
                                                                   Structure is to form
                                                                   as urn--
                                                                          ash.
 
                                                                            First, nowhere,
                                                                                       now
                                                                                       here.
                                                                            Music
                                                                                       is hot.
                                                                                             Everyone--
                                                                                                            hot.
 
                                                                                                            To ignore the flame
                                                                                                            beneath the rug
                                                                                                            simply
                                                                                                                      mute the guest.
 


                                                     I know of no sizable group of negroes in this country who want to revise American
                                                           institutions. They want to be part of those institutions, for good or ill, as they now exist.
                                                                                                                                                          —Bayard Rustin

LESLIE MCINTOSH has received support, in the form of fellowships and residencies, from the Furious Flower Poetry Center, Callaloo, and The Watering Hole. He was the 2nd place finalist in Split This Rock’s 2019 Sonia Sanchez-Langston Hughes Poetry Contest, judged by Franny Choi. His poems have been published in the Beloit Poetry Journal, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, and the Quarry. He lives in Jersey City, NJ.



VOLUME 53.3