Danielle Legros Georges

author of two collections of poetry and editor of an anthology; 2nd Poet Laureate of Boston; winner of the New England Poetry Club's 2016 Sheila Margaret Motton Book Prize; received fellowships from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, the Boston Foundation, the Black Metropolis Research Consortium, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council; her work has appeared in AGNI, The American Poetry Review, Black Renaissance Noire, The Boston Globe, The Caribbean Writer, Consequence, Salamander, World Literature Today, and others


 

Poem for the Poorest Country in the Western Hemisphere

 

O poorest country, this is not your name.
You should be called beacon. You should

be called flame. Almond and bougainvillea,
garden and green mountain, villa and hut,

girl with red ribbons in her hair,
books under arm, charmed by the light

of morning, charcoal seller in black skirt,
encircled by dead trees. You, country,

are merchant woman and eager clerk,
grandfather at the gate, at the crossroads

with the flashlight, with all in sight. 


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