This is Michael Carey for Voices from the Prairie a weekly sampling from the rich soil of Iowa’s literary tradition. Today’s poet is George Barlow an African American writer and professor at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. His poem deals with the brute honesty of someone suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome, a condition where the sufferer is often incapable of not saying what he or she is thinking, but simply, obsessively and blamelessly blurts out what the rest of us might chose to hide. In the end we are all wounded by racism whether we know it or not. After all these years, it is still something that has to be dealt with consciously or unconsciously, even in our own minds, especially in the minds and hearts of young black American males. In this poem George Barlow listens compassionately and knowingly to the tortured soul of someone who can’t hide thoughts that are in the air all around us.
She can’t help it –
the thing her brain does
without warning.
The automatic "nigger-nigger-nigger,"
the snap of her head,
the quick jut of her tongue
can happen anytime, anywhere.
So she lives
in a TV documentary
and talks about her life
while a nurse, treating new sores
on her white arms, scolds her.
Was holding her own
on the outside for a while;
was really trying; but she’s back again
to care for the dolls and wigs
in her stuffed room
because this thing
causes problems in town,
at the park, at the mall:
"Can’t go back to the hot dog
place.
Nope. Can’t get a milk shake…
nigger-nigger…nigger-nigger-nigger…
the guy keeps callin’ security cops
‘cause, ya know, the old tongue
up to the nose, ya know … trouble!
So I’m here…it’s…nigger…nigger-nigger…
okay, I think.. boy oh boy…
so I stay here…"
She would stop it
if she could; would be a good girl
in the hall and in the day room;
wouldn’t yank out little patches
of her hair; would leave her bandages alone;
wouldn’t disturb, poor thing,
the involuntary wounds of her nation.
"The Girl with Tourette’s" by George Barlow originally published in Voices on the Landscape by Loess Hills Books.
For Voices from the Prairie and Humanities Iowa, this is Michael Carey hoping you continue to hear the music blooming all around you.
Biography
George Barlow is an Associate Professor
of American Studies and English at Grinnell College and author of two books
of poetry Gumbo (Doubleday, 1981), a National Poetry Series selection,
and Gabriel (Broadside Press, 1974) and the co-editor of About Time
III: An Anthology of California Prison Writing (William James Association,
1987). Some of the many anthologies that have included his work are: In Search
of Color Everywhere, Color: A Sampling of Contemporary African American
Writing, Every Shut Eye Ain’t Asleep, The Jazz Poetry Anthology, The Best
of Intro and New American Poets of the 80’s.