In the Father's shadowy hoard pillows belch feathers across mattress and floors: what was an oriental rug, now a carpet of scat, gone-astray socks, calendars from rescue shelters angling for checks. There's nothing to toss among the vivid tethers to Mother. Maybe my mother, maybe Father's. There's no margarine container any less pathetic than a netsuke from Kyoto; no expired sardine tin less urgent than a dozen aerograms; no receipt less intimate than their honeymoon photo snapped in the local aquarium. The adult daughter takes in the spew, pabulum that a bird feeds its nestling.
"But calling the US 'postcolonial' jars; the term suggests nations riven by imperialism whose healing is incomplete. Yet this is Diaz’s point–the myths of equality and freedom peddled by US founding fathers were a white settler fantasy projected on to a wound stretching from sea to shining sea."
Resources for Supporting and Uplifting the Black Community
Voter Rights Action: "Voter Rights Action is a grassroots organization working to protect our democracy and stop attacks on voting rights across the country."
Movement for Black Lives: "The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) seeks to reach millions, mobilize hundreds of thousands, and organize tens of thousands, so that Black political power is a force able to influence national and local agendas in the direction of our shared Vision for Black Lives."
Coming to the Table:"Working together to create a just and truthful society that acknowledges and seeks to heal from the racial wounds of the past, from slavery and the many forms of racism it spawned."
Poetry Daily stands with the Black community. We oppose racism, oppression, and police brutality. We will continue to amplify diverse voices in the poetry world. Black Lives Matter.
"Early in my encounter with poetry 'The Fish' taught me that description has the ability to consecrate and even transubstantiate what’s being looked at, especially if it’s an object or thing, like a fish. In Bishop’s poem, the moment of consecration takes place as the speaker considers his eyes and notices among other things how 'They shifted a little, but not/ to return my stare.'"
