Girmay - The black Maria: poems

BOA Logo: Mirko Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Girmay, Aracelis, author. Title: The black maria : poems / by Aracelis Girmay. Description: First edition. | Rochester, NY : BOA Editions Ltd., 2016. | Series: American poets continuum series ; 153 Identifiers: LCCN 2015043256| ISBN 9781942683025 (paperback : acid-free paper) | ISBN 9781942683032 (ebook) Subjects: | BISAC: POETRY / American / African American. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Black Studies (Global). | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Emigration & Immigration. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Emigration & Immigration.

Classification: LCC PS3607.I47 A6 2016 | DDC 811/.6dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015043256 BOA Editions, Ltd. 250 North Goodman Street, Suite 306 Rochester, NY 14607 www.boaeditions.org A. Poulin, Jr., Founder (19381996)And there are stars, but none of you, to spare. June Jordan, Sunflower Sonnet Number Two Table of Contents

My routes: Eritrea, Puerto Rico, African America.we,the livingyou,unless stated otherwise, the deadthe sea,also a you, talkless witness, body of water, body of bodiesthe Luams, there are four Luams. One Luam is nine years old, she is the sister of Abram, Alexander Pushkins great-grandfather, who was kidnapped, sold into slavery, & given as a gift to Peter the Great in the early 1700s, it is said that Luam drowned or died at sea, here she is also a fish, or the dead; one Luam is 36 years old, she was born in Asmara, Eritrea but now lives in Umbertide, Italy, outside of Perugia, where it is idyllic & quiet, & she cleans houses there; one Luam is 36 years old & lives in New York City, where she teaches school & writes poems, & she was born in the United States; one Luam is 36 & lives in Asmara where she is a nurse at the hospital. Luam means peaceful & restful in Tigrinya.the flies,the word angel has come to English from the Latin angelus & the Greek angelos which mean messenger, envoy, one that announces. The Old English word for it was aerendgast which means errand-spirit. For the Luams there are no angels, only flies.About the flies the Luams say: The fly is bright & working. It carries the messages of hunger & the sentences of the wound.

It cannot carry the message without, itself, being touched. The fly whose hands & feet touch death, bring death to where it lands. Out of doors, it carries the history of the wound, disobeying the locks on doors & screens. The flies, they are the honest who know their history & take it everywhere.Romares Odysseus, after the legendary king of the Odyssey epic, Odysseus was famous for the ten years it took for him to return home after the Trojan War. Romare Bearden painted & collaged this Odysseus as a black man in the Black Odyssey cycle which concerned black travelers on their way to & from home.when1702, 1530, 2013, 1781, 2015Still, all the history of the worldhappens at once. Jean Valentine, from Then AbrahamwhereNew York City,one of the largest natural harbors in the world.

Before colonization, New York was an area of land inhabited by Algonquian-speaking tribes, it was since colonized by the Dutch, Portuguese, & British. Today, it is the most linguistically diverse city in the world, & the most populous city in the United States. Along with London & Tokyo, it is one of the three command centers of the world economy.Umbertide,a small Italian town in Umbria, not far from Perugia.Asmara/Asmerais the present-day capital of Eritrea. It was once part of a region called Maekele Bahr (named to describe the land between the Red Sea and the Mereb River). The area was later part of a medieval kingdom called the Medri Bahri, or Land-Sea/Sea Land. Evidence suggests that the citys origins trace back to 800400 BC.

Asmara was under Italian occupation from 18971941, & under British occupation from 19411952, after which Eritrea was federated to Ethiopia, making the new capital Addis Ababa. In 1959, Ethiopian authorities introduced an edict which established the compulsory teaching of Amharic (the language of Ethiopias ruling class) in all Eritrean schools. In 1962, under Emperor Haile Selassies rule, Eritrea was officially adopted as Ethiopias 14th province. Between 195962, an Eritrean independence movement began to form which turned into a 30-year war for independence that was won in 1991. Theoretically the state is a unicameral parliamentary democracy, but the president & former freedom-fighter, Isaias Afwerki, has been in office since independence. National elections have not been held since independence, over 20 years ago.the Mediterranean Seathe Red Seathe Caribbean Sea