My friend Emily has turned me on to the poet DeLana R.A. Dameron, whose How God Ends Us has won the South Carolina poetry prize and is one of the best first offerings I’ve read in a while. This brief one is from DeLana’s own website. And oh, how much so many of us know (or knew, when we were younger) about being “confident in invisibility” and being a “stone statue” when the lights are on.
No Longer Ashamed
In the daylight, under the open glare
of the unshaded bulb in your apartment,
I straddle your lap. It is hot for February.
Down to tank top and bare feet you brush
your hand against my forearms, shoulders,
chest. Despite desire, I am a stone statue
in the garden. The only times we’ve come
to this place is under the cloak of night—
oh inscrutable night I bloom under
without pause, without question, confident
in my invisibility. You reach with cupped hand
to a breast as if to hold water. You ask
if you could see me. I am a small sip falling
I love this! I’m definitely going to buy her book. What an amazing new talent.