the ritualistic / the sage burning / the sage smelling / the jasmine annointing / the stage walking / the stage standing / the stage, adorned / the stage, held and inhabited and drawn to life by me / the honey jar makin / the menstrual / the writing / the cursive / the writhing / the one with alice coltrane on vinyl / the one with a love supreme playing at constant crescendo / the one with the sound of tarot decks being shuffled / the one that smells of cornbread and collard greens / the one with oil painted flora / the one with jasmine tea steeping / the one that ain’t afraid to recall massa or the plantation or the tricks laid in order to escape both / the one that ain’t afraid of the chaos and darkness and thrash and haste / the one that looks like tired mothers laughing / the clandestine / the open / the hiatus / the reveal / the covert preparations / the overt operations / the books, stacked / the detroit red and the el hajj malik el shabazz / the solar / the autumnal / the wintry / the wintry / the wintry / the star following / the sky studying / the spell making / the herbal the tobacco sprinkling / the spliff rolling / the spliff smoking / the black women honoring / the morning praying / the nightly dreaming / the intuitive / but the mezcla / the intellectual / the mode that looks like square writing and Times New Roman typing / the butterfly squat / the erect spine / the annotating / the note taking / the neuronal focus / the somatic lurch toward the text, toward the implications, toward the embedded revelations, / the studious / the knowing / the showing / the speech giving / the imparting / the taut jaw / the writing / the writhing