Transfigured Night
after John Akomfrah
In front of the peristyle a woman
gazes into a window made of water.
Not cotton boll, not ticker tape, what whitest
fabric scatters over all the clapping hands?
In this temple, as in the hearts
of the people, shadows are creased
into branches without petals. Beneath,
travelers assemble to adore the marble
Emancipator. His promise. Just
yesterday two women became statues
in separate cells. Now they walk the same road,
purple blossoms adorning their closed eyes.
Isaac Ginsberg Miller‘s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as Callaloo, The Collagist, Colorado Review, Propter Nos, Sonora Review, The Shallow Ends, and Tupelo Quarterly. His chapbook Stopgap won The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review Chapbook Contest, and is forthcoming in 2019. Isaac earned an MFA in poetry at NYU, where he was a Goldwater fellow. Additionally, he has received fellowships from the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, the Blue Mountain Center, and the Ragdale Foundation. He is currently a PhD student in African American Studies at Northwestern University, where he is also a member of the Poetry and Poetics Graduate Cluster. You can find him online at http://isaacginsbergmiller.com/