After
Alex Tizon’s article "My Family’s Slave" as regards Eudocia Tomas
Pulido
(The Atlantic, June 2017)
From The
Ashbery Riff-Offs
—where each poem begins with 1 or 1-2 lines from
“Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror” by John Ashbery
Witnessed in the Convex Mirror:
Avatar
Even
stronger possibilities can remain
whole
without being tested, like a girl
given as
a slave by a father to a daughter
The
daughter did not want her, but she
bowed to
patriarchal authority—as with
so many
matters, it starts there. The daughter
came to
treasure slave-ownership, not
only
from being fanned to sleep amidst
tropical
heat. She spoke to a boy, then lied
When
caught in her lie, her father pulled off
his belt
to begin punishment. Cowering, she
thought
of a solution she would keep re-
counting
for the rest of her life: she told her
father
her slave would take her penalty. He
did not
question his daughter’s decision
The
slave looked up, pleading with her
eyes:
she was young enough to believe
a plea
could garner sympathy—that a plea
maintained
relevance in her life. The father
clenched
his teeth before raising his belt
to lash
her back, twelve times. The slave did
not
utter a sound as she lost her self’s distinct
possibility
while holding on to the table—
did the
wood give way to the clench of her
unbelieving
fingers? Years later, the slave
-owner’s
son, offered the slave his own home
With her
own bedroom. With no need to do
chores.
With television. With her freedom
With
only the smiling suggestion to enjoy
Could it
all compensate for a life taken
away
from this life-long virgin who once
hoped
otherwise, having been spotted
sleeping
amidst piles of laundry with legs and
arms
crossed around a huge pillow? The slave
was 86
when she died—did she not remain a
possibility
that remained whole without
being
tested? Despite another family who
claimed
her as their own? Another family
whose
daughter kept recounting how
her
slave was sliced with a dozen lashes
meant
for another because the slave was
poor?
Poverty—as with so many matters
it
starts there. Between gritted teeth
the
father had punctuated each lash from
his belt
on her back with You. Do. Not. Lie.
To. Me. You. Do. Not. Lie. To. Me. To each
word in
this life that was not hers, the slave
made no
sound. No sound of her own to fit
in a
life that became a lie to her own possibility
Witnessed in the Convex Mirror:
Integrity
The
surprise, the tension are in the concept
rather
than its realization. In this way, integrity
is
possible as, like Picasso, we break into
irreparable
fragments the image that assumes
it
bespeaks the reality of psychology. To see
that
woman sleeping amidst laundry piled up
in the
corner of a room, her fingers trapped
in the
pose of folding her master’s shirt, must
be to
become broken witness—if not, integrity
becomes
a dream trapped in a mirror. Only
the
broken can muster the ability to howl:
Break EM
Break EM
P I R
E
into a
PYRE
whose
flames reveal, in a reversal of recorded
history,
bodies not of “acceptable casualties”
but of
politicians and generals with helmets
shields,
uniforms and flags also fragmenting
in order
to kindle the fire higher and hotter—
such is
a nonexistent history as history
is
recorded by victors. When the tired woman
wakes,
she will open bleary eyes to the image
of
fingers trapped in servitude. By knowing
the
sight to be familiar, she will lapse to silence
unbroken,
at the definition of her inescapable
H
O
M
E
Eileen
R. Tabios, founding editor of Galatea Resurrects, has released about 50 collections of poetry, fiction,
essays, and experimental biographies from publishers in eight countries and
cyberspace. Her most recent include THE
OPPOSITE OF CLAUSTROPHOBIA (Knives, Forks and Spoons Press, United Kingdom,
2017) and AMNESIA: SOMEBODY’S MEMOIR
(Black Radish Books, United States, 2016). Forthcoming poetry collections
include MANHATTAN: An Archaeology
(2017) and HIRAETH: Tercets From the Last
Archipelago (2018). Inventor of the poetry form “hay(na)ku,” she has
been translated into eight languages. She also has edited, co-edited or
conceptualized 12 anthologies of poetry, fiction and essays as well as served
as editor or guest editor for various literary journals. More information is
available at http://eileenrtabios.com
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