The anklet

Evie Shockley

my sister’s visit
   to india begins
      it. i asked for a sari,
   but received
what would fit
   in her pack.
      silver. link
   after link, bone
interlocked with
   O. a blossom
      of bells at the clasp.
   months elapsed
before i dared
   to wear it. finally,
      the snaky spine
   shining against
my skin. a tinkling
   paces me when i
      walk, brings
   would-be lovers
to my feet.
   the encircling gift
      is a freedom:
   the one leg chained
only to itself.

Evie Shockley - Evie Shockley was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. She is the author of The Gorgon Goddess(Carolina Wren Press, 2001). Her poetry and fiction have appeared in journals and anthologies, includingBlack Arts Quarterly, Blue Mesa Review, Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review, The North American Review, Obsidian III, Catch the Fire!: A Cross-Generational Anthology of Contemporary African- American Poetry, and Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora. Shockley is a graduate fellow of Cave Canem and was awarded a residency at Hedgebrook Retreat for Women Writers in 2003.

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