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a June Jordan portfolio
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- Poem for South African Women
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- The Bombing of Baghdad
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First Poem After Serious Surgery
The breath continues but the breathing hurts Is this the way death wins its way against all longing and redemptive thrust from grief? Head falls Hands crawl and pain becomes the only keeper of my time I am not held I do not hold And touch degenerates into new agony I feel the healing of cut muscle/ broken nerves as I return to hot and cold sensations of a body tortured by the flight of feeling/normal registrations of repulsion or delight On this meridian of failure or recovery I move or stop respectful of each day but silent now and slow from Kissing God Goodbye (1997) and from Directed by Desire. The Collected Poems of June Jordan. Copyright 2005 by the June M. Jordan Literary Estate Trust |