I Could Be a Boxer
I have a history
of growing wisdom
teeth, parting my gums
like persimmon fruit
and making it look easy.
Like bright dead things
look easy or carving
S.O.S. in fresh cement,
the branch moving
like an arm or leg.
But I know my body –
it's a stove that learned
early how to bake
a life or take one.
Like mending a crow's
wing when I was eight,
its feathers thick
enough to fill an urn.
And birthing that tooth?
was like punching
a bruised rib but
I took it like God
was in my throat
telling me not to cede.
Cynthia Manick is the author of Blue Hallelujahs (Black Lawrence Press) and editor of Soul Sister Revue: A Poetry Compilation (Jamii Publishing, 2019). She is the founder of the reading series Soul Sister Revue, and her work has appeared in Callaloo, Poem-A-Day, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. You can find her on cynthiamanick.com.
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