Shane McCrae

THIS ALSO
MULATTO

THIS ALSO

Most otherwise most beautiful most beau-

tiful the same and otherwise and bright

Here bright here beautiful most walking though

Most moved and were I not a patriot

Most walking through wave walking through the o-

cean loses every step its body she

Most walking through a crowded room or in

Public and were she not each injury

Most walking disembodied through the air

Most watched looked after watched and what

Eye looks and doesn’t take most beautiful

And what eye looks and gives what wave is part

Of the ocean it makes visibly an ocean

Most walking through if no man loves his country

Because no country has a body or

What country gives and does not take the body

Most otherwise and bright here beautiful

And from one city to the next espe-

cially a train built specially one cit-

y to the next most walking every step

From one compartment to the next she loses

Her body crowded and what step is part

Forward or backward of the motion of

The train and were I not a patriot

I wouldn’t look and bright here bright here beauti-

ful otherwise no country loves the body

MULATTO

Mule with a black boy’s head a little mule

Young mule a black boy’s head old Spanish word

I had a black boy’s head I was not changed

I had a young mule’s legs I was transformed

A little mule a little master lit-

tle master littler mule a teacup mule

I carried tea and brayed at the horses in

The fields my mother my half-sisters all

Horses in the fields and in the master’s bed

My father’s bed I carried tea I was

Not changed to the master and his only son

My master my half-brother my half-sis-

ters in my father’s bed I was transformed

My father’s only son my other self

My other half invisible and lived

The only one of us in the visible

World in the world where horses do not speak

And humans do not hide in horses’ bod-

ies I have never seen that world but eve-

ryone who goes there comes back white erased