Chitra Ganesh, How to Assemble a Flying Car (detail), 2018, linocut on tan BFK Rives. Courtesy of the artist & Durham Press.
Tom Ass Clarence
Ask these knees if there’s
a negro attached
to them
Ask these knees
who they belong to
& how long they been here
pinned to the
ground.
“These knees can talk, child!”
1st time I seen knees talk.
But these knees can talk
These knees can cry
These knees can even lie
Only knees had a program on tv
Only knees married to
a pornography of naked nuns
Only knees can exist w/o anybody
w/o no legs or thighs
or feet or anything
Only knees can exist
independent
of anything
completely
by themselves
autonomous
these are
Self made knees
prosperous knees
proud knees
shiny knees
These knees are
Called
Knee grows
Like I said
These knees
be on television
They got they own
Show.
Amiri Baraka is the writer of over forty books of poetry, drama, essays, and music criticism. He has received honors including a Guggenheim and two NEA fellowships and an induction into the Academy of Arts and Letters. He has been a highly prominent figure in several activist movements. (updated 6/2010)