Given a Song: Ghost Dance

Wednesday, January 15, 2020
The floor nurse was not floating in mid air
she informed me with her title   her name though
was nonlocal   her words were carried from where I knew
but were colored with a music like her skin
the same as I wore   not from here
but from different darks of origin
Indian West Indian Dravidian blacker than us both
had mixed us African   our new world. Her name was Mary.
 
Language patterns and transmits these symbols mouth to ear
in humans   creates   what was not clear  and locates it
here    I answered my name    she explained
anyone attending me would ask the same questions
my whole stay here first     it was hospital policy     asks me
to flex the muscles of my face smile   a mask as
oracular as comedy or tragedy   the startled
archaic O     stick out my tongue
 
follow the fingers side to side     focus on the nose
how many on the hand   as gestural a dance
as bee word   squeeze her fingers
We discuss where I stand from this tablet
this blanket   we sit on this rim    ring
out of which emanates our story   the plans
the tribe cathedral   the impossible abstracted
cities    I am given       3:01am   across time a song
 
to see if I have had a stroke   to say if I am
conscious   to raise us from the dead   Ghost Song
 
Can you tell me your name
Can you tell me your name
No
It will come
It will come back to you
Who
It will All
Come back
Wednesday, January 15, 2020