Nicole Sealey's The Ferguson Report: An Erasure reviewed in The Guardian
American poet Nicole Sealey's The Ferguson Report: An Erasure reviewed in The Guardian's poetry books of the month feature; her first two poetry books are published by...
They say stand in line,
so we stand in line. As the line
advances, they say stand still. Around us, everything
going, going like cars or clouds.
Us, the blur cars pass, the blue
clouds dam. They say wait,
so we wait, as if for some
fragrant flower that unfurls
one night a year. They say shh,
so, like trees, we mouth cross
sounds of flags beaten to shreds
by wind. Our heads twitch,
birds watching for what might
be stalking. Right before
they deploy canines to bite,
there’s a pause between wails
in which you hear your shut
eyes dilate. Listen.
This extract was published in The New Yorker (31 July 2023) with an introduction by Kevin Young. If you go to this page and scroll down, you will see the letters and words of the poem being left as the rest of the report pages are erased. There's also a reading of this extract by Nicole Sealey.
Contents List
acknowledgments ix
i. pages one to twelve 1
ii. pages thirteen to twenty-one 15
iii. pages twenty-two to thirty-four 27
iv. pages thirty-five to thirty-nine 43
v. pages forty to forty-nine 51
vi. pages fifty to sixty-four 63
vii. pages sixty-five to seventy-seven 81
viii. pages seventy-eight to eighty-four 97