In the Negro section of Nashville

blood rises on hot summer wind
crepe bushes, honey petals trickle past
rough solemn wood
Inside your yard, the grass smells of heat
You nudge half-awakened stones
hands caress still curves, await birth
weeds spin in the shallows
gnats erupt on quicksilver wings
float on warm shadows
chisel in hand, words are wedged between air
between breath, between blood
blow by blow, stone spirits rise and fall
softer than the curled eye of death

Here, the trees know how to wait
smell dust on wind and know rain is yet to come
You’ve grown lean, walking along
the city streets under a glassy sky
whispering to steps, crumbling curbs as you pass
stone for marrow and dust for skin

The wind sings strength
to your carving hand

Sheree Renee Thomas is a Memphian living in New York. Her short stories and poetry have appeared storySouth, Essence Magazine, Obsidian III, Harpur Palate, Mojo: Conjure Stories, Role Call, Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, and So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction and Fantasy. A note on Edmonson: Born around in the Hillsboro Road section of Nashville, Tennessee, William Edmonson (1874-1951), was, in 1937, the first African-American artist to have a one-man exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Edmondson was a stone carver who worked with a hand-made chisel on limestone block discarded from demolished buildings; inspired, he said, by religious visions, he did not start sculpting until he was about sixty years old.