Artist: Akan
Artist: Unknown
African
Title: Linguist
Staff with Finial Representing an Elephant
Date: 1885-1895
Medium: Wood and
gold leaf
The Museum of Fine
Arts, Houston. Gift of Alfred C. Glassell, Jr. 97.1291.1.2
His Golden Ears
After an Akan tribal linguist
staff (Ghana)
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
It
feels lighter than it looks, truly
this
accessory that proclaims my role
my
wooden staff that gleams in the sun
a
straight golden beanstalk covered in ears
ears
that hear all manners of people
ears
that do not discriminate between age or wealth
a
bridge between my chief and his people,
the
ones who follow and trust him
as
he rules and guides them how he will
but
he isn’t locked up in a palace somewhere
disconnected
from, apathetic of those below
he
listens to their joys, complaints, pleas
through
us he is connected to them, we are his ears,
his
bridge to the births, changes, conflicts, deaths
with
golden tusks angled down and trunk curled in,
the
elephant on high instigates mouths opening, words flowing
creating
messages for me to hold for the moment
through
whispers, in outbursts, at the market, inside homes
it
is a symbol, signaling that their opinions are welcome,
that
I will pass them on to be listened to, taken note of, resolved
but
there are always more
requests
to be fulfilled
inquiries
to be denied
issues
to be discussed
disputes
to be resolved
and
I am grateful the final decisions are not mine to make.
Eloísa Pérez-Lozano, Honorable
Mention, Friendswood Library Ekphrastic Poetry Reading and Contest
Eloísa
Pérez-Lozano grew up bilingual and bicultural in
Houston, Texas, and is a long-distance member of the Latino Writers Collective
in Kansas City. A 2016 Sundress Publications Best of the Net nominee, her work
has been featured in The Texas Observer, Houston Chronicle, Diverse
Voices Quarterly, and The Acentos Review, among others.
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