Sisters in Arms by Audre Lorde (1986)

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Sister in Arms refers to warrior sisters who work together, embracing the intimacy that can be offered to each other, as well as healing and supporting each other on revolutionary journeys. [1]

This poem depicts the struggle of black women in apartheid South Africa. Lorder was a key figure for a campaign called Sisterhood of Support of Sisters in South Africa, this group supported the activism of black South African women against the racists. [2]

Poetry

The edge of our bed was a wide grid

where your fifteen-year-old daughter was hanging

gut-sprung on police wheels

a cablegram nailed to the wood

next to a map of the Western Reserve

I could not return with you to bury the body

reconstruct your nightly cardboards

against the seeping Transvaal cold

I could not plant the other limpet mine

against a wall at the railroad station

nor carry either of your souls back from the river

in a calabash upon my head

so I bought you a ticket to Durban

on my American Express

and we lay together

in the first light of a new season.

Now clearing roughage from my autumn garden

cow sorrel overgrown rocket gone to seed

I reach for the taste of today

the New York Times finally mentions your country

a half-page story

of the first white south african killed in the “unrest”

Not of Black children massacred at Sebokeng

six-year-olds imprisoned for threatening the state

not of Thabo Sibeko, first grader, in his own blood

on his grandmother’s parlor floor

Joyce, nine, trying to crawl to him

shitting through her navel

not of a three-week-old infant, nameless

lost under the burned beds of Tembisa

my hand comes down like a brown vise over the marigolds

reckless through despair

we were two Black women touching our flame

and we left our dead behind us

I hovered you rose the last ritual of healing

“It is spring,” you whispered

“I sold the ticket for guns and sulfa

I leave for home tomorrow”

and wherever I touch you

I lick cold from my fingers

taste rage

like salt from the lips of a woman

who has killed too often to forget

and carries each death in her eyes

your mouth a parting orchid

“Someday you will come to my country

and we will fight side by side?”


Keys jingle in the door ajar threatening

whatever is coming belongs here

I reach for your sweetness

but silence explodes like a pregnant belly

into my face

a vomit of nevers.

Mmanthatisi turns away from the cloth

her daughters-in-law are dyeing

the baby drools milk from her breast

she hands him half-asleep to his sister

dresses again for war

knowing the men will follow.

In the intricate Maseru twilights

quick sad vital

she maps the next day’s battle

dreams of Durban sometimes

visions the deep wry song of beach pebbles

running after the sea. [3]

Author

Audrey Geraldine Lorde, well known as Audre Lorde (/ˈɔːdri lɔːrd/) was an American writer, feminist, librarioan, womanist and civil rights activist. Describing herself as a “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” is best knwon for technical mastery and emotional expression. [4]

Born on February 18, 1934 in New York City of the youngest of three sisters, raised in Manhattan and attended Catholic school. Her first poem appeared when she was in high school in Seventeen magazine. [5]

Lorde attended Hunter College to receive her B.A. degree in 1959 and master’s degree in library science, in 1961. Her first volume of poetry, The First Cities was published in 1968. [6]

Racism Issue

The poem talks about protests of extreme racism occurring in South America. The first stanza describes how the little power the author holds wants to help fight racism in South Africa. In another way, the author seems to be telling her friend that she wants to help in a violent protest, but she cannot. “plant the other limpet mine against a wall at the railroad station”

In the next Stanza, the author speaks about the silence of the media in America, calling out the New York Times with words “finally mention” South Africa. However the media speak about the white South Africans dying, instead of the massacre and imprisonment of the black children. [7]

The poem began where the tension is already established. “The edge of our bed was a wide grid where your fifteen-year-old daughter was hanging gut-sprung on police wheels” this gives depiction that the author was in a South African woman in a bed with a young girl who needs to be buried, however the author is unable to come along to bury this little woman.

Instead of telling about a six-years-old black child massacred at Sebokeng and being imprisoned for threatening the state, The New York Times only reported the problem in that country. TNY only mentioned the problem because a White South African has been killed in the conflicted area. “We were two Black women touching our flame and we left our dead behind us I hovered you rose the last ritual of healing" [8]

References

  1. SCHOOL OF OUR LORDE. Summer of Our Lorde. Retrieved January 16, 2021
  2. Audre Lorde: Poetry Essay Questions. Grade Saver. Retrieved January 16, 2021
  3. Poetry and the Civil Rights Movement. Poetry Foundation. Retrieved January 16, 2021
  4. Audre Lorde. Wikipedia. Retreived January 16, 2021
  5. Audre Lorde. Poets. Retrieved January 16, 2021
  6. Audre Lorde American poet and author. Britannica. Retrieved January 16, 2021
  7. Richter, Max. North American Time/ Sisters in Arms Question 1. April 13, 2015. This is American Lyrics 2015. Retrieved January 16, 2021
  8. Katz, Mika. North American Time/Sisters in Arms. This is American Lyrics 2015. April 13, 2015. Retrieved January 16, 2021