Online Exclusive: “Wilding” by Shara McCallum

Shara McCallum

Wilding

Machetazo!, Bony Ramirez & Blonde Dreams, Alison Saar

you can take the girl out of the wilderness
you can strand her bewilder her for a time
you can even hang her upside down
in your rickety attempt to shake loose
the source of her power but you won’t ever
disentangle the wilding from her
the force of a thousand suns unfurling
and hurling her toward the ground
you won’t be able to erase the traces
of salt lacing her ravenous dreams
oh you can try unwebbing her feet
but the lizard in her will keep sunning
itself as the day is long and at nightfall
will crawl up your walls lurking
at the corners of your vision
goading you on while she thwarts
your every endeavour abandoning
her tail anything required of her
to keep eluding your capture 

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From Jamaica and born to a Jamaican father and Venezuelan mother, Shara McCallum is the author of seven books, published in the US; UK, including her forthcoming collection, Behold, in which the poems in this issue will appear. Awards for her poetry include a Guggenheim Fellowship, NEA Fellowship, Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, OCM Bocas Caribbean Poetry Prize, among others. McCallum teaches at Penn State University and from 2021-22 served as the Penn State Laureate.