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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.

Portrait of Amiri Baraka

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)

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