Roslyn
Roslyn has nothing going
nothing to fight for
no work to do
she couldn’t name one desire
that is not someone else’s
or a man
she cannot claim
where she came from
will not claim who she is
or the way she cries
so no one can see
she has no work to do
cannot finish books
feed herself
or go out alone
she is always late
not to sit alone somewhere
and wait
she wouldn’t know what to do
Roslyn doesn’t want a thing
but she waits for something anyway
she has no work to do
she holds off interests
passions and opinions
everything but the facts
and these come to her
from dramas and the papers
she agrees with fiction
and what people say
i wouldn’t trust her in court
or on my back
a woman without a dream
is a fault in the earth
all steam and liquid fire
Roslyn goes to work
has a job
but no calling
waits for the word
to call herself
no one ever remembers her name
or where they saw her
she waits to be told
she’s the only one
her tyranny is silent
small and sexual
her losses are great
she has not called herself
said, “I’m here, now, deal with me”
Roslyn wouldn’t hurt a fly
but people fear her sleep
her unconscious
the primal whatever
that wants to play
it might have guns out
for the rest of us
Copyright Credit: Thulani Davis, “Roslyn” from Playing the Changes © 1985 by Thulani Davis and reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press.
Source: Playing the Changes (Wesleyan University Press, 1985)