from no country he has seen
Panopticon
The keeper put me in the cage with the monkeys
Because I asked to be
Put in the cage with the monkeys
Most of the papers say the monkeys
must // Remind me of my family
The liberal papers say the monkeys must
Remind me of my home
The papers don’t ask me
some days // I tuck notes explanations
Into soft monkey shits
and call white children to the bars
I warn the parents / But still they let their children come
And that’s my explanation / I am
their honest mirror
I say Whether you’re here
to see me or to see the monkeys
You’re here to see yourselves
Privacy
I tell the keeper I don’t know
What he or any white man means
When he says privacy
Especially
In the phrase In the privacy
Of one’s own home / I understand
he thinks he means a kind of
Militarized aloneness
If he would listen I would tell him
Privacy is impossible
If one’s community is
Not bound by love
Instead I tell him where I’m from we
Have no such concept
If he thinks I am / Too wise
he won’t speak honestly
And so I make an / Effort to make
my language fit his
Idea of what I am
I find with him and with his guests
Because I’m on display in
A cage with monkeys
I / Must speak and act
carefully to maintain / His privacy
and // If he would listen I would tell him
Where privacy
Must be defended
There is no privacy
I have become an // Expert on the subject
But I have also learned
The keeper will not trust me / To understand
even what he has taught me
What Do You Know About Shame
Late very late long after
The many families and the lone white man
Who stayed long after
The families had gone had gone
Last night the keeper staggered to my cage / Weeping
he said his wife
Was leaving him
And he would never see his son
Again I said I did not understand
Why he would never see his son again
He said he was ashamed
And his // Wife was ashamed
and she was going back to
Her people was his word
and / Taking the child
I said I did not understand
Why he would never see his son again
Again I said there would be no
Ocean between his son and him
No bars
Between / Him and the ocean
if there were an ocean
And I said Surely I am making you
A wealthy man
you can // Afford to travel
can you not
The keeper stepped close to my cage
and snarled / Your women / Tramp through the jungle
with their tits out // What do you know about
shame and I shouted You are drunk
Go home and be / Drunk with your family
While you still can
He growled
and struck the bar between us
And stumbled back and fell
How do you know a white man’s really hurt I laughed
He / Stops crying
Privacy 2
I tell the keeper I don’t know
What he or any white man means
When he says privacy
Especially
In the phrase In the privacy
Of one’s own home / I understand
he thinks he means a kind of
