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Published: Thu Oct 15 2009
Eva Lundsager, Were now like (detail), 2021, oil on canvas
Mulatto

Half donkey and half human being         half horse

Half human being three         halves which end is which

And which the back         for the saddle and which

The fingers for the work         and where the song

 

Which unrelated to the body pass-

es through the body and that body is

Made more or less         a human body the

Singer’s the listener’s the listener

 

Can’t help but feel nostalgic and a lit-

tle scandalized half         donkey with its star-

tling hair attached         somehow to something living

Touch it it isn’t         smooth like real hair

 

And every child can sing         and knows the songs

And you will recognize yourself in the singing

And they will sing for any audience

And saddle both         the horse and rider sing

 

The horse         sings with its back sings         with its fin-

gers and the singing is         not in its eyes

Which are an animal’s         not in its hair

Which isn’t real         not in its eyes which are

 

Not real         but only in the body working

And makes the body human working you

Will recognize yourself in the singing         you

Will not recognize yourself in the songs

See what's inside AGNI 70

Shane McCrae is the author of Mule (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2011) and two chapter books: One Neither One (Octopus Books, 2009) and In Canaan (Rescue Press, 2010). His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The American Poetry Review, African American Review, AGNI, New Orleans Review, No Tell Motel, The Best American Poetry 2010, Fence, Denver Quarterly, Typo, Esque, and others. He has attended the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Harvard Law School. He is working toward a PhD in English at the University of Iowa. He lives in Iowa City. (updated 5/2011)

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