(audio: Then And Again)
between seeing you
between having a moment of your smiling
and the absence of you
between the early afternoon sun on your face
and the memory of wanting to keep you longer than one meal
between then and again
the same again of wanting and waiting
the same again of hoping and having
the same again of knowing and wanting to know more
between all the stops and starts of doubting
between every ounce and measure of experience
between each one of my days and nights of aloneness
and the heavier weight of choosing rightly who to kiss twice first
between every moment that chases me toward the again
I am awash and dumbstruck by the moment of THEN
I remember every step that I’ve taken in your presence
and every time that you turned toward me
every flash of recognition in your eyes
each of your tentative smiles each parting of your lips
the opening and closing of your mouth to greet me and to send me on my way
I had thought of you before from a collection of distances
thought of you married thought of you otherwise taken and claimed and loved
thought twice of you younger twice your dynamic in that youthfulness
I had checked and held my breath in your presence
checked for those awkward, low whistles that the body creates around breathing
checked on my taking in and letting out
checked out those risings and fallings of your small chest
checked on the way your stomach fills to a tightness then yields to the belted waist of your black dress when you chuckle
checked off all of the reasons to leave you in the distance
THEN
checked off all the reasons to close that distance
Jas. Mardis is a 2014 Inductee to The Texas Literary Hall of Fame. He is an awarded Poet and Fabric Artist living in Dallas,TX
There are two leather pyrography works featured on this piece and features a lace-cut work tablecloth and quilted, star pattern patchwork. The images on this piece features two characters from a familiar migration story. The man has fled the South for a chance at Harlem, New York and Adam Clayton Powell’s upward Negro progress. His letter home has announced a new longshoreman’s job and Harlem apartment room is read over a wagon wheel mailbox
by his spouse. It tells of Father Divine and his religious movement to feed, house and train migrants and Harlem-ites, alike. Get here, Now! The Statue of Liberty skirts the bottom of the piece as an anchoring symbol of the promises awaiting all who would dare to hope on the backbone of a new place. Beside her is a tenement building with rows of metal trash cans lining a street paved with gold. On the other side is a recreated advertisement of Adam Clayton Powell’s “8,000 Mile Cross Country Tour: The Negro On the Home Front” from The People’s Voice Newspaper.
