~ Delta Poetry Review ~

Juliet Hinton

Scribing Black Bodies

our bodies, charred remains, bone black,

painting our names in black silhouettes,

taller than hanging trees, above

the scroll of names,

a torn soul against an iron sky,

a sharp cry in the layered forest,

calling out our African names

to overcome the fearfulness smarting

at our hearts, in the night, a soul searching

for its rightful name,

like a stranger coming home in thin light, our names . . .

a black script needled through the false names.

 Juliet Hinton is a Cancer Registry Manager in Research and Informatics for almost twenty-two years. Her metaphoric vision of landscape, feminine voice, and the miseries and mercies of Perry County poems are published in Tipton Poetry Journal, Delta Poetry Review, Cantos, Valley Voices Literary Review, and other literary journals. In January 2022, she received a Pushcart Prize nomination for "Calvary Baptist Church" published in Delta Poetry Review. She is currently working on more Perry County and landscape poems and a new project on oncology cancer care. Email: julshinton@gmail.com