Poem for the Day: “For the Record” by Audre Lorde
Rekia Boyd's (Video) family is hosting a rally for her this afternoon at Douglass Park. While I will be unable to attend, I dedicate this Audre Lorde poem to Rekia today.
For the Record
In memory of Eleanor Bumpers
by Audre LordeCall out the colored girls
and the ones who call themselves Black
and the ones who hate the word nigger
and the ones who are very paleWho will count the big fleshy women
the grandmother weighing 22 stone
with the rusty braids
and gap-toothed scowl
who wasn’t afraid of Armageddon
the first shotgun blast tore her right arm off
the one with the butcher knife
the second blew out her heart
through the back of her chest
and I am going to keep writing it down
how they carried her body out of the house
dress torn up around her waist
uncovered
past tenants and the neighborhood children
a mountain of Black Woman
and I am going to keep telling this
if it kills me
and it might in ways I am
learningThe next day Indira Gandhi
was shot down in her garden
and I wonder what these two 67-year old
colored girls
are saying to each other now
planning their return
and they weren’t even
sisters.