Aesthetics
we must know a force
greater than our weaknesses
—Jean Toomer
like most boys, ignorant
or fearful of beauty, we
pinned back the wings
of butterflies and plucked
off their legs, and watched
and watched them tumble
from leaves like pinecones
wheeling from rooftops;
and we laughed.
we crumbled alka-seltzer
for the pigeons, “those
flying rats” my mother’s
ex-husband once called.
their bodies floundering like
toys flung from a window.
white foam from their mouths
stark against the asphalt
framing their artless convulsions
and we laughed
with open-mouths until
tears dripped from our
chins and our throats
were raw with the rightness
of god.
Amaud Jamaul Johnson, “Aesthetics” from Red Summer. Copyright © 2006 by Amaud Jamaul Johnson. Reprinted by permission of Tupelo Press.
Source:
Red Summer
(Tupelo Press, 2006)
