{"id":36622,"date":"2016-11-22T08:00:43","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T14:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=36622"},"modified":"2026-04-08T15:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T20:57:08","slug":"a-dangling-piece-of-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/a-dangling-piece-of-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Louis E. Bourgeois: “A Dangling Piece of Wall”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

written by Louis E. Bourgeois<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a room of textured sheet-rocked walls
<\/span>He had screamed at her from the threshold.
<\/span>The white live-in
<\/span>He with his Cherokee skin.
<\/span>With his coffee skin, faded skin,
<\/span>He escaped from the reservation
<\/span>And became a barred attorney in Georgia.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He being only twenty-one
<\/span>It was all his own making
<\/span>There was no blood bonus
<\/span>Only years of hard work and starving with strength.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Propped on pillows and hands behind the neck
<\/span>Elbows on both sides the head
<\/span>Lying alone on a queen size bed
<\/span>Staring at a busted wall.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The jagged orifice of the wall
<\/span>Dangled a piece of itself, in itself,
<\/span>Where the door knob had just gone into and out of.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stretching out the hand that forced the door
<\/span>Into a mean breath, echoing through the Atlanta town house,
<\/span>Remembering it as the same hand that made his grandfather
<\/span>Say slapping:  uyoiu way, uyoiu way<\/em>: 
<\/span>When throwing stones through people\u2019s windows
<\/span>When caught stealing loose-leaf from the Cherokee store
<\/span>When caught slicing the throat of a neighbor\u2019s dog
<\/span>With a knife as long as a stake and a few inches more.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the central air conditioner hit 72 degrees
<\/span>Pushing the dangling wall back and forth
<\/span>The air roaming his body
<\/span>Like wind on an apricot colored desert. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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