Returns

Abstract

Returns Vievee Francis (bio) (2016/2021) And what did I expectgoing back downSouth? I could walkthe side-walks. I couldlook anyone in the eye.I could swim in the pools.I could, I could, I could, Icould…and I ate at finerestaurants where the chefgreeted me and asked mehow my meal was, andI ordered a simple plateat a simple diner and not manylooked up, and the beacheswelcomed me, and the chainsof hotels on those beaches,and not one person said"nigra"and did you think I wouldn'tsay it here? I went back aftersaying I would never go back,after a childhood lostto adult brigades withouta sword or a gun, withouta bitter word or rudeglance,like a broken saint, like a [End Page 129] saint with every bonebroken, I walked with alimp,I smiled with half myteeth and I was readyto die in the warbegunbefore I was born. ButI could not find thebattle field. And thefield my mother as achild would haveworked was a parkinglot. And I sat betweenthe lines and cried forwhat I would neverhave, justice. And thetanks within merusted, and the bombsimploded in what wasleft. Now, what yousee is a shell. Andwhat I saw was a lie.Anillusion. Knowing, liketruth is a mercy, evenwhen buried. Youhave to know what'sthere under the ballsof your feet. But I wasstill surprised when itlifted its head likesnakes hidden in thebrushbehind a pretty house [End Page 130] in North Carolina'striangle. The landlordsaid "Look out for thecopperheads" and Ishould have knownthen. [End Page 131] Vievee Francis vievee francis is the author of four books of poetry, including The Shared World and Forest Primeval, winner of the Hurston Wright Legacy Award and the 2017 Kingsley-Tufts Award. She is an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College. Copyright © 2022 Yale University