Portrait of an Unidentified Black Woman, c. 1850, by Alexander Perez

Unidentified Black Woman, photographer unknown (USA) c. 1850. George Eastman House collection.

Portrait of an Unidentified Black Woman, c. 1850

no

i am not

your slavery
question

no
house girl
mule
wench

i record

prophecies &
passwords &
proverbs

curses &
abolition-talk

in my demure
pocket-book

i'm not
propped up

in this chair

for your 15 minute
emancipatory politics

my hands

wide as oars

row
through
slave rolls

span continents & octaves

command servants
like
moses
come
down

shape the finest pastries
more delicate than the northern star

reverend said the stowaways
devour them with both hands
like as if they were the christ-body

how do you like my plaits?
i straighten them as best i can

don't want to scare you with my kink
unruly as the irish

(harpooned in this whalebone corset what i wouldn’t give for my cotton nightgown embroidered with the pink violets the one i wear in the garden on spring nights while the homestead sleeps to let the warmth creep into my spiraling moss)

how am i doing?
am i developing nicely?

i want not to make a bad impression

my
silver-plated spirit
doused in mercury
finished in gold chloride

affixed
as
your
white
scalding
skin

daguerreotype of I
[unknown black woman]
dark as the ocean bed’s secrets

&

no

i will not smile for the camera

Alexander Perez

Alexander Perez has published poetry in Blue Unicorn, South Florida Poetry Review, Queer Toronto Literary Magazine, and elsewhere. He has a chapbook entitled Immortal Jellyfish forthcoming in 2023 from Finishing Line Press. Alexander is a member of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild and resides in Upstate New York with his partner James. For more, feel free to visit perezpoetrystudio.com