"Still Waiting" by Harryette Mullen

[View this email on a browser]( [Forward to a friend]( [facebook-icon]( [tumblr-icon]( [twitter-icon]( August 2, 2019 [Still Waiting]( [Harryette Mullen]( for Alison Saar Please approach with care these figures in black. Regard with care the weight they bear, the scars that mark their hearts. Do you think you can handle these bodies of graphite & coal dust? This color might rub off. A drop of this red liquid could stain your skin. This black powder could blow you sky high. No ordinary pigments blacken our blues. Would you mop the floor with this bucket of blood? Would you rinse your soiled laundry in this basin of tears? Would you suckle hot milk from this cracked vessel? Would you be baptized in this fountain of funky sweat? Please approach with care these bodies still waiting to be touched. We invite you to come closer. We permit you to touch & be touched. We hope you will engage with care. [Like this on Facebook]( [Share via Twitter]( Copyright © 2019 Harryette Mullen. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on August 2, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets. [Mullen reads "Still Waiting."]( About This Poem “I wrote ‘Still Waiting’ in response to works by the artist Alison Saar when her show, STILL..., opened at Ben Maltz Gallery in Los Angeles.” —Harryette Mullen [Harryette Mullen]( Harryette Mullen is the author of Urban Tumbleweed (Graywolf, 2014). She teaches English and creative writing at UCLA, and lives in Los Angeles, California. Photo Credit: Judy Natal [more-at-poets]( [Urban Tumbleweed]( Poetry by Mullen [Urban Tumbleweed]( (Graywolf Press, 2014) "Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa [read-more]( "Unrest in Baton Rouge" by Tracy K. Smith [read-more]( "Owed to the Plastic on Your Grandmother's Couch" by Joshua Bennett [read-more]( August Guest Editor: Ruth Ellen Kocher Thanks to [Ruth Ellen Kocher](, author of Third Voice (Tupelo Press, 2016), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read a [Q&A with Kocher]( about her curatorial approach this month and find out more about our [guest editors for the year.]( [make a one-time donation]( [illustration]( [Small-Blue-RGB-poets.org-Logo]( Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit [Poets.org](. You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click [here](. © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038