A Girl in a Deli Doorway, Brooklyn, New York (1988) - Dawoud Bey

just a girl in the deli doorway
looking beyond the photographer
into that which is infinity
and which can never be touched
aside from with our eyes

to be a woman is a sentence 
for which there is no relief
nor crime - and she wears it

on her shoulders, in every pore 

of her face

the world a place of mutual unwanting
her soft hardness
an appeal and a threat
so she reaches into
the beyond

(so often his

subjects are leaning

against something

metal and shiny

something opposite

to the luster of their skin

so alive and defiant

and yet the need of support

of that which is real

while their faces speak

of all which is not - 

take me with you

break me you already do

I watch unable

to look away 

from such beauty.)