Ellen June Wright
Ellen June Wright is an American writer with British and Caribbean roots. Her work has been published in Gulf Coast, Plume, Tar River, Missouri Review, Caribbean Writer, Obsidian, Verse Daily, North American Review and others. She’s a Cave Canem and Hurston/Wright alumna and has received Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations. She also hosts a weekly poetry workshop. To learn more about her work, visit https://ellenjunewright.com/.
Unnamed Female II
(after Thomas Eakins’ “Female Model,” circa 1867-69.)
They used to commit Black women to asylums
when they could no longer pretend
everything was okay and would be alright
if they just prayed hard enough or danced,
or laughed loud enough or hummed spirituals
to get them through. It’s been a month now
I’ve gazed on her form thinking she’s so familiar—
nude in more ways than one, stripped of artifice
emotionally naked and alone, her pensiveness
as if just receiving bad news, her resignation
as if helpless against life’s injustice. Something’s
etched in the deep shadows of her face.
Something about her mirrors something
inside me I don’t dare let others see.
