gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender: literature and culture || assimilation blues
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Assimilation BluesAuthor(s): Constance MerrittSource: Callaloo, Vol. 23, No. 1, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender: Literature and Culture(Winter, 2000), p. 43Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3299512 .
Accessed: 15/06/2014 23:20
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ASSIMILATION BLUES
by Constance Merritt
The moon's silver, the sun's plentiful gold, The splendor of the prince and all his world
Beguiled our eyes until we came to hate The things of home: the smell of brine, the weight
Of waterlight, the palaces' dank walls
Dripping jewels-corals, ambers, pearls,
And cockle-shells. We let our garden plots, Much cherished once, run rife with weeds; forgot
The haunting songs our mothers sang, our own Voices dissonant in our ears; each of us alone
In self-disgust: the scales, the backward tongue, The fish's tail, the way we swam among
The animals, the lowest ones, soulless As they were. The old ones grieved for us: solace
We spurned; there was nothing for it but to leave, And it seemed small sacrifice for us to give
Everything for what we'd get in turn: Love and a soul.
Well, live and learn.
Callaloo 23.1 (2000) 43
This content downloaded from 62.122.73.177 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 23:20:17 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions