[if your complexion is a mess] by Harryette Mullen

The speaker looks at contemporary burdens related to beauty in the context of being African or dark skinned. A lot of care went into this. It's packed with rhyme and near rhyme, alliteration, and assonance -- especially strong at the end with cancer and rancid. Lots of allusion and frollicking with the language paired with sharp observation, slightly acerbic in tone. 

[if your complexion is a mess]

if your complexion is a mess
our elixir spells skin success
you’ll have appeal bewitch be adored
hechizando con crema dermoblanqueadora

what we sell is enlightenment
nothing less than beauty itself
since when can be seen in the dark
what shines hidden in dirt

double dutch darky
take kisses back to Africa
they dipped you in a vat
at the wacky chocolate factory

color we’ve got in spades
melanin gives perpetual shade
though rhythm’s no answer to cancer
pancakes pale and butter can get rancid

From the book Recyclopedia by Harryette Mullen, published by Graywolf Press, 2006.

Ode to the Maggot, by Yusef Komunyakaa

This is a good one to go with Pablo Neruda's Dictionary (see below). American poet Yusef Komunyakaa names Neruda as one of his influences. The language is lustrous, just like the creature he describes. Hear him read this.

Ode to the Maggot

Brother of the blowfly
& godhead, you work magic
Over battlefields,
In slabs of bad pork

& flophouses. Yes, you
Go to the root of all things.
You are sound & mathematical.
Jesus Christ, you're merciless

With the truth. Ontological & lustrous,
You cast spells on beggars & kings
Behind the stone door of Caesar's tomb
Or split trench in a field of ragweed.

No decree or creed can outlaw you
As you take every living thing apart. Little
Master of earth, no one gets to heaven
Without going through you first.



From Everyday Mojo Songs of Earth
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021.

Copyright © 2021 by Yusef Komunyakaa.