South Carolina Morning

By Yusef Komunyakaa b. 1947 Yusef Komunyakaa

Her red dress & hat

tease the sky’s level-

headed blue. Outside

a country depot,

she could be a harlot

or saint on Sunday

morning. We know

Hopper could slant

light till it falls

on our faces. She waits

for a tall blues singer

whose twelve-string is

hours out of hock,

for a pullman porter

with a pigskin wallet

bulging with greenbacks,

who stepped out of Porgy

at intermission. This is

paradise made of pigment

& tissue, where apples

ripen into rage & lust.

In a quick glance,

beyond skincolor,

she’s his muse, his wife—

the same curves

to her stance, the same

breasts beneath summer cloth.

Source: Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems (Wesleyan University Press, 2001)

Biography

In his poetry, Yusef Komunyakaa weaves together the elements of his own life in short lines of vernacular to create complex images of life in his native Louisiana and the jungles of Vietnam. From his humble beginnings as the son of a carpenter, Komunyakaa has traveled far to become a scholar, professor, and prize-winning poet. In 1994, he claimed the Pulitzer Prize and the $50,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his Neon . . .

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