Masochism

by Quan Barry

after Lucie Brock-Broido

was the meek .
was montgomery overcome.

was bombed. was empty buses.
was bull's eye to bullet,

the billy club, the bloody church.
am black, historically

was skin kindling. was prey
to hook and hood. was the named thing

and never called. learned
to take a beating. was silent

despite the presentation of the throat,
the brick and truncheon,

the gutting clean. nineteen
fifty five and the we

walking there and back. was the seeing
of things for the first time, the tele-

vision, the web of fire.
opposed the politicians in the door,

the turning on of the dogs, the sicking
of the hoses. am the nonviolently

strong. was the women and children first.
was song. was the lifting out of egyptland.

was black eyes. was swollen lips. was asking for it.
the sitting down. the giving over.

from Asylum