FEATURED STORY

I Know You

© 2010 LaTwyne Wise

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I know you.  Together hand in hand King and Queen we once watched the erection of the pyramids.  Gleaming with pride we breathed love beneath the sentry of the Sphinx.  Together we had overseen the unearthing of treasures, our life’s fortune.  We nestled in the affluence of harmony.  Blessedness.  Our culture reeked of wealth; a sweet scent that was coaxed to the veracity of the treacherous.  Our code of existence was exploited. We found that red warm blood does not suggest humanity.  We lost a lot, too much, but we had each other. We cherished each other.  We knew each other.

I know you.  I watched the lash leap upon your back in envious torture. Your stamina that could not be encompassed was sold in substitute.  My heart silently beckoned to be worth more than rectangular paper that seemed to amount to more than a soul.  Our babies were dispersed to the highest bidder: good genes now serving as our adversary.  Yet whether yards, miles, years, states or worlds away, I continue to feel you.  The imagery of our connection is what drives me to fight for the reunion of our minds.  My body mutely ached to be secured within your manly fold.  I know you felt me because you knew me.  We knew each other.

I know you.  I once stared eternally into your eyes at the reflection of your brother dangling from a tree like a lifeless leaf.  The terror of what could come was imminent.  In my eyes, you stood as the epitome of strength, as I watched the fear drape over your shoulders like a weighty cloak.  The strange fruit stained our minds.  Life’s tale grew further incoherent.  We were unable to trust the air, the earth, and our lives for at any moment it could be stolen and claimed by another.  We relied on nothing except each other.  We appreciated each other.  We knew each other.

I know you.  Your art spoke to me in a way only you could.  It bled of our struggle, it whispered inspiration, and spit out conventionality. Your words enunciated my heart in delicate syllables that explained its rhythm, the bounce, the erratic.  I floated in the tunes that you borrowed from the movement of my hips.  It warmed and invigorated me as you blew air of unselfishness into a mechanism that emitted gratuity.  I marvelled in the brush strokes that I saw my reflection in. Your overt symbolism of connectedness won my praise.  I said nothing, yet you knew.  We realized each other.  We knew each other.

I know you.  We stood aside one another in protest for liberation.  Our liberation.  In a haze of uncertainty of much except what was due; where K9 and water once innocent now evil foes; when willed by man. We had nothing to lose but life that had no value when devoid of struggle.  For struggle, we’d become akin to.  We stood for freedom and fell for nothing.  We lived in awe of the magnitude of the feat we faced and the ones we had won.  We embraced ourselves; defects blossomed into love and acceptance.  You affirmed I was beautiful, I believed you.  We understood each other. We knew each other.

Your newfound claim of anonymity disregards our union.  We’ve treaded through the blazes of a human-run hell, marred yet alive. Within your gaze, is that when I became unbeautiful?  I miss the times when my self-love was supported by your ratification.  When your unrelenting respect offset my societal dispraise.  When the sum of your art uplifted my spirit.  Before the reflection of myself within it humiliated me, shamed and dishonored me. Before my radiance, once a glimmer in your heart was reduced to a mere commodity.

How has our connection mutated to a rivalry, where we’re blind to our possession of a magnetic bond enforced by divinity?  When did I become incapable of the partnership for which I was born, for which you’ve now claimed paleness as the pre-requisite?  Together we’ve lived amongst the traumatic realms of degradation.  Is that when you could no longer appreciate me?  When it became taxing to understand me.  When my “attitude” once familiar was marked reproachable.

Once upon a continent, we mutually agreed on life.  When you recognized the power of greatness under your wings intended to carry us both to emancipation.  Before kismet was muffled beneath ignorance.  Then, I knew you. You knew you.  We knew each other.

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 *All rights reserved.  No part of this story may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the writer LaTwyne Wise.*

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