If skin is a stage’s scrim through which
light passes and drums up
what the eye wants to see, then
the body is a theater
of war—a site of
disagreement between what is
there and what one
perceives is there. There is a town
on TV coming undone
over the body of a boy
believed to be devoid of light. The town
disappears in light after explosion
of light projected through
the television set to my eyes—
refusing to look closer.
If I were to look closer
at the scene, there would only be
a series of red, blue, and green
pixels abutting each other
like the political map
of this city or that village. Inside of the TV,
the protesters are struck by the song
of nightsticks and pepper spray, then they turn
into smoke screens. In that case, then, the body
is a smoke screen for what
I lack the courage to say:
if that boy devoid of light ran toward me
would I have not flinched, in return,
with my body—devoid of light?
from Fantasia for the Man in BlueFind more by Tommye Blount at the library
Copyright © 2020 Tommye Blount
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Four Way Books.