Les Negres De Paris
by Kwame Dawes
These days I study old photographs
		                 and collect those with bodies
			                              facing away, their backs
their heavy coats, their shawls
and hats, as they move in crowds
through cities covered in snow
or slick with rain, or washed
in plain light—and I imagine
these are the bodies of Black
people, recolonizing the imagination.
And this is how I find my
	             company here far from
		                           home, how I show love,
how I feel safe. Every back,
			                     it seems, is a blood neighbor.
Photograph of the poet Kwame Dawes.

Kwame Dawes is the author of twenty books of poetry and numerous other books of fiction, criticism, and essays. In 2016 his book, Speak from Here to There, a co-written collection of verse with Australian poet John Kinsella appeared.  His most recent collection, City of Bones: A Testament (Northwestern University Press) will appear in 2017. He is Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner and teaches at the University of Nebraska and the Pacific MFA Program.  He is Director of the African Poetry Book Fund and Artistic Director of the Calabash International Literary Festival.