Dancing With the Doe

New and Selected Poems, 1986-91

Margaret Randall

This important collection of the work of internationally-celebrated poet Margaret Randall covers the five dramatic years following her return to the United States from Mexico, Cuba and Nicaragua.  These poems describe Randall battling with the Immigration Department, her awakening to the nightmare of childhood incest, and her emergence as a lesbian.  She also describes her continuing support of the socialist movement despite setbacks at home and abroad.  Bold and unabashed, she is one of our most experienced and provocative political voices.

My hands coming up for air
survive.
The pulse opens, closes, speaks.
My necklace of skulls is scattered now.
I want to erase those nights
fearing your father’s assault
upon your bed, your body.
I want to honor these women who survive,
ourselves.
Honor that part of me
standing tall beneath rain.
When you say, I haven’t liked myself lately,
I want to hold you
turn your face and art
to the mirror of your life.
Make you look
and hold you without limit of time.
I also need to know
that the you you do not like
is not me crying in a dark place.
My hands coming up for air
breathe their own pulse.
The skulls of my necklace
have scattered on a heavy sea.
No one should have to sleep
with a baseball bat beneath the sheets.
             —“Coatlicue,” for Susan

6 x 9 inches • 104 pages • ISBN 0-931122-70-8 • $9.95