That evening the Beloved came,
and with sleight of hand,
unfastened an old corset
around my heart
I hadn’t known I was wearing,
opening flood gates,
sending up wreckage
of shame and regret –
some mine, some other’s –
burdens that barged,
never belonged
but had docked there.
Each unhooking released
a binding of weights:
one unleashed a cry
of my mother
and my mother’s mother
and the sounds of
her motherland,
until a strangling
aah note was freed.
Then each loosened lace,
let in an eyelet of sky —
exposing filmy layers
of old images fading,
burning away, all cover
until I was naked –
in the light of night