A Portrait of Self by Joseph Powell
A Portrait of Self I am sound and fury, signifying everything; strurm und drang, wrapped in black skin; I am what a sinner looks like, broken by grace; the son, my father never had; the apotheosis of blues incarnate and undiluted jazz. I am the love-infused truth of Baldwin; I am, Nina Simone in a man’s body; you read my words because you can handle the truth. I am the city of broad shoulders, and all its Bronzeville residents, distilled to represent light and shadow, beauty and pain; my name is verisimilitude; my name is on the lips, unspoken by the one who preached the Sermon on the Mount. I am not what you think I am, but I am, what you need me to be; touching you to the very core of your soul; I am the moral of the story; I am the riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, yearning to breathe free; what love looks like in public and...