Margaret's Question to the Elevator as Much as to the Man
By Ed Roberson
the whole point of this is what she asked
of him not who he thought he was but what
whatever his accomplishment could do
— and here’s the finer point — for whom—?
and if I follow that up and down
the stories I come to the landing
where she asks even the elevator itself anew but
inveterate climber what it thinks it’s all about —
this getting — nowhere up than down — then out —
on the street leveled again enough to look up. — What
into balance does that un-staggering
moment bring fetch down?
We always did think up
there held treasures like how to —
raise more land out of what we had. — but what
about us what does up
there have to say to lift us?
up if it’s into whiteness black ain’t all that
interested. all that already got
it’s own god bless. this chile know where it’s at.
all it’s asking is what is it next what
is his own up to?
his own could be we know how to get down
deep and dirty into it fuck it through
the wall’s off the see how deep is down
existentially or up out of aspiration presupposedly
we blow into what we have taken in
and take over the party
change affiliation to up to somethin’
surreptitious as always have had to
under to get over over what we wanted
it to be. done. really over the up to
now fulfilled. the bloody running done its vaunted lip.
Notes:
This work is part of the portfolio “‘These Blazing Forms’: The Life and Work of Margaret Danner” from the March 2022 issue.
Source:
Poetry
(March 2022)
