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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