What You Deserve in This World

What You Deserve in This WorldFor Esther Michael S. Harper (bio) In the next you are married to an African whose tribal sentience allies you to your sisters for the first time primal time in his universe yours will be service again, but occasionally you will look down your hips healed in childbearing so many as to make you dizzy as dynastic blessings come with Jupiter and perhaps the golden stool: women still run the cosmic marketplace no matter what you hear from Ananse his intricate webs transmuted to patterns of cloth whose finery cannot be decoded or made to copy: these prints your natal colors are richer than the rainbow I see your attitudes of glee at all the jokes you know your fine-tuned scrutiny of intention equal to all modes of thought and action. Michael S. Harper Michael S. Harper is University Professor and Professor of English at Brown University, where he has taught since 1970. He is the first Poet Laureate of the State of Rhode Island, a post he held from 1988 to 1993. This prize-winning poet is author of ten books of poems, including History Is Your Own Heartbeat, Song: I Want a Witness, Debridement, Nightmare Begins Responsibility, Healing Song for the Inner Ear, and Honorable Amendments. In 1970 and 1977, his poetry collections, Dear John, Dear Coltrane and Images of Kin were nominated, respectively, for the National Book Award. In 1979, he selected and edited The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown for the National Poetry Series. Copyright © 2004 Charles H. Rowell

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