WOMANIFESTING

Supreme Suite

I.

Sisters of call response

and silver spangles

born to sing of love

with tambourine

and violin.

You let Roma woman bleed

through bell and handclap.

But mama raised good girls,

so you hip dip, two step to the side,

flamenco your hands, and extend your

desire through the line of a fingertip.

II.

Flo,

what did you know of riding

in cars with boys after the show?

What do good girls know

of shame? of new disgraces?

And sisters left untouched

what can they do

but hum you into living

then carry your blue note

of a body

home.

III.

You were girls together

like Nell and Sula.

What do blood sisters know

of unraveling desire from a lyric,

holding a smile over

ooooo babeee,

faining heartache with a handclap?

Flo, did you grant forgiveness at the grave?

Did they say your name

like Nell said Sula’s?

Oh Lord, Flo then

girl, girl, girlgirlgirl.*

Blue Light Alchemy

(for Michael Jackson)

a rotation

an orbed

path

inside a circle

inside a

circle

revolutions

into

a groove

worn in the floor

where you

spun

like a

planet

worn

into new element

spun into a black

Saturn

light and gas

into sulfur

blue light

alchemy

a spinning top

of memory

you will

lock and pop

your vinyl self

that sweet tenor

and terror

into the blur

of a black boy’s

body.

Dr. Kelly Norman Ellis is an associate professor of English and director of the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Chicago State University. Her first collection of poetry entitled Tougaloo Blues was published by Third World Press. She is also co-editor of Spaces Between Us: Poetry, Prose and Art on AIDS/HIV. She is a Cave Canem Poetry Fellow and founding member of the Affrilachian Poets.