watch as my skirt drags across this stage, 

as I let the notes circle around me when I turn 

closer and further 

intimate and so far away

until my head nods for one last time

snapping shut the doors to this captivating 

tune, this siren’s song

listen to the echoing of the applause 

bouncing off these carpeted walls

and onto my skin

wrapping me into its thundering embrace

take note of the slight nod of my head

signaling the close of the curtains,

the end of this bow

 

and now 

don’t watch as my bare feet touch the cold 

ground of my dressing room

well, the ground that is not completely 

adorned with chocolates and cheeses and 

legs 

so many legs

don’t watch as my skirt hikes up my thighs

and my knees jet out from below the fabric 

don’t listen as I let a cackle escape where a vibrato usually lies

and a snort, every now and then

don’t smell the sweat seeping into the air

or the oils flowing from the roots of our crowns

coming from a room filled over capacity with Black

bodies and Black love and Black women

Blackness that sings sweeter than my own voice

don’t touch the hands of my sisters, 

colleagues in old concerts,

friends from the companies of our youth

women who push me to see art as love and joy and heart

art for us

 

applaud me from the safety of your seats

watch me from below the height of this stage 

 

and then look away

 

maybe it’s best you never saw it

maybe it’s best you kept your articles 

to wonder and amazement 

at the exception

 

the truth is I was never staring up

at a man

I was staring at this love

this love that fills that stage 

when I sing 

this love that fills this room

when I do not

 

so don’t come any closer  

 

this joy, this freedom, this community

is mine

 

The photograph and poem above depict Sissieretta Jones, one of only a handful of Black women named — as opposed to just being labeled as someone else’s nurse, maid, servant, slave, etc. — within the Randolph Linsly Simpson African American photography collection at the Beinecke Library at Yale University.

KRISTEN ST LOUIS