Book Excerpt – She
She
by Saul Williams
Publication Date: Jun 01, 1999
List Price: $13.99
Format: Paperback, 128 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9780671039776
Imprint: MTV Books
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Parent Company: KKR & Co. Inc.
Read a Description of She
Copyright © 1999 Simon & Schuster, Inc./Saul Williams No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission from the publisher or author. The format of this excerpt has been modified for presentation here.
From She
i presented
my feminine side
with flowers
she cut the stems
and placed them gently
down my throat
and these tu lips
might soon eclipse
your brightest hopes
***
she had nothing
but time on her hands:
silver rings, turquoise stones
and purple nails
i rubbed my thumb
across her palm:
a featherbed
where slept a psalm
yea, though i walk
i used to fly
and now we dance
i watched
my toenails blacken
and walked a deadened trance
until she woke me
with the knife edge
of her glance
i have the scars to prove
the clock strikes
with her hands
***
i have seen the truth
many times
but for the first time
she saw me
i wore suspenders
for the judgment
in my pants
***
i laced my shoes with sorrow
and walked a weary road
dead end streets
don’t come undone
with double knots
wing tipped shoes
that walk on air
through vacant lots
***
she kept her deck
beneath her pillow
and had promised
me a reading
she stuck a bookmark
in my heart
and walked away
it was autumn then
the leaves
suddenly flames
the sidewalk
burning cinders
i walked the streets
as if the sun
had called me boy
mad at the world
on aging feet
shuffling
her cards
shuffling
my feet
head
to the sky
blue
the clouds
her cards
the clouds:
her cards
shuffling
the skies
a storm passes
new clouds appear:
the chariot
the priestess
the moon
in broad daylight:
an omen
***
love is an unbridled horse
with one wing out-stretched
the other tucked and folded
on the right side
the horse galloping
towards a cliff
knowingly
panting just enough
for you to think
he’s laughing
he?
love is male?
love is a dumb horse
with silver streaks
and a sometimes penis
a sometimes penis?
on thursdays
the rest of the week
she grazes
and paints her hooves
with red mud
making tracks
through the fields
which disappear
soon after they appear
because nature has a way
of changing
the same way
it remains