Bernard James
Writing under the pseudonym Bernard James, James Bernard Short is an emerging short fiction writer, essayist, and poet. His singular ambition as an artist is to produce smart, expressive, and culturally authentic content that captures the wide spectrum of aspirations and challenges encountered by persons of color. James’ work has appeared in Callaloo, The New Guard, Auburn Avenue, Blood Orange Review, The McNeese Review, and SmokeLong Quarterly among other literary journals and publications. He is a 2018/2017/2016 Kimbilio Fellow, and a 2015 Givens Writing Fellow. James holds degrees from Northwestern and The University of St. Thomas. He currently resides in the Twin Cities.
Pox (For Philando)
It hurts to hold my face together.
What I muster
for presentation
is less than truthful. Pretense borne
of survival,
blank check of oppression
in the steel-toed boots poised
to cave
in the teeth of a genuine smile.
Still we bleed
for this land, but she is unmoved
for Buccra claims
an exclusive birthright
that allows
no room for you and me. Rope, stick,
badge and gun –
His agents demand
their pounds of flesh from our women
and men,
our little boys and girls
to feed
the appetites of their cursed imaginations.
It hurts to hold
my face together.
No amount of cosmetic alteration
can hide
the scars and puckered
flesh.
The grooves and jagged
edges
from wounds rotting
well past expiration dates. Wasteland
for pockmarks
and pustuled misalignments…
It hurts to hold my face together –
and if I can’t, what will I tell
them? How will I arm my children sitting
quietly in the adjoining room waiting
patiently
for the next phase to begin
as a pestilence devours
the land, our cycle of privation unending?
What blessing
can I bestow as they venture
forth
on confirmation,
that the beast – with sharpened
claw
and blood-stained
teeth – still roams?