If you leave the window open
You can hear the sound
Of the clouds turning
We’re going to get rain
A little bit late in the day tomorrow
After the heat’s done with us
I put a pot on the stove
Turned on the radio
Felt like hearing somebody talk
Out a few miles back
There are men in the fields
Waiting for all of us to go to sleep
We assigned posts
I got the late shift
Because I don’t take to sleeping
Back when I lived out west
There were night raids
And you’d wake up to find yourself
Holding your own scalp
They’d come to my door
And I’d have blood spread out
All over the knobs
And staring ‘em right in the face
Take a lesson from the Bible
Nobody enters a house
That’s been blessed
By blood
Pretty soon
Every door had been
Knocked down
But mine
And that’s when I
Hopped a train
And made my way here
Only to find
That your fields
Have just as many
Men in them
As the ones
Back home
I’ve done two things
So far in my life--
Hiding
And running
Eventually
Like a child ages
You get to a point
Where the only thing left to do
Is stick
And me?
I’m going to stick
I’m going to stick
Like brown sugar
They’re going to get
Their fingers
Wet with me
I put on my good nightgown
And my work boots
And my Mama’s hat
And I’m going to stay up late
Waiting for the whistle
That says--
Time to go, boys
They’re asleep
Men know how to go
Hand-to-hand
But nobody traps
Like a woman
And that’s where
We’ll meet ‘em
At the traps
We set
I hope when they smell
The rain
They mistake it
For a good omen
And not for what it is
And not for what it is
A coming of tears
A prediction of blue blood
The bluest
The kind that wipes itself out
As it makes its way
To the water
The bigger streams
The larger lakes
The widest ocean
Come an hour from now
I’ll have the radio off
And the window shut
And the door
Clean as can be
No blood on it
And a pretty little
Welcoming mat
Placed right down
In the front of it
That’s how I’ll let them know
I’m nice and weak
That’s how I’ll make them
Feel like
It’s safe
To come in
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